Tip sheet: Questions to ask at medical conferences when time is short

Attendees at Well being Journalism 2023 in St. Louis hearken to a session. Picture by Zachary Linhares

Conferences may be hectic to cowl, and it’s troublesome typically to pin down the researcher or presenter you want, a lot much less get quotes from different attendees a couple of explicit presentation. It may be much more difficult while you’re protecting a convention just about. In both case, preparation is essential, and one of the essential methods to arrange is figuring out the sorts of questions you’ll be asking presenters and outdoors consultants. 

Having a listing of prepared questions, whether or not they’re for the presenting researcher or an outdoor skilled or attendee commenting on the analysis, can assist you get the solutions you want rapidly in these valuable moments on the finish of a presentation or no matter transient time it’s important to pull the commenter away. A prepared listing can be useful for these occasions when your mind has merely begun reaching convention carrying capability, and it’s arduous to suppose straight.

When you’re protecting a convention just about, you may need a better time with researcher quotes when you’re conducting interviews over electronic mail. However when you do handle to catch a presenter on the cellphone, they doubtless gained’t have a lot time, so being prepared along with your questions can guarantee an environment friendly interview. 

Beneath is a group of questions you should utilize for almost any medical examine presentation at a convention. There are doubtless different questions you’ll need to ask which might be particular to the examine itself, however when you can’t consider something to ask, the questions under are phrased to at the least present a pair quotable feedback on your story. 

Whether or not you utilize these actual questions, tweak them or develop your personal, remember that more often than not, what you primarily want is the medical significance of the findings. Or, if there is no such thing as a rapid medical significance, your readers will need to know what makes the findings essential, stunning or in any other case notable. In brief, why are you reporting on this examine and never any of the 200 different ones on the convention? 

If the presentation isn’t a brand new analysis summary however is as an alternative geared toward offering persevering with medical schooling credit for attendees, it’s much less doubtless that something earth-shattering or new will likely be part of it. In that case, you usually need to know a very powerful take-home medical factors that the presenter needs attendees to stroll away with, or the important thing level an attendee you might be interviewing bought from the presentation.

If you’re particularly restricted on time, be aware the asterisks on a very powerful questions.

Questions for presenting researchers

• May you please state and spell your identify, your title with levels, your institutional affiliation and your metropolis?*
• Do you’ve got any monetary disclosures or conflicts of curiosity? (In cellphone conversations, I ask this query on the finish, however with the restricted time accessible at a convention, the place you would possibly get reduce off early, it’s price asking proper at first.)*
• To what extent had been your findings stunning, or not stunning, and why?*
• Why is that this analysis or your findings essential?
• What’s the key medical take-home message out of your examine for clinicians? What does this imply for his or her on a regular basis medical follow?*
• Is there something you need to add or notably level out to others, or is there something I ought to have requested you about that I didn’t?*

Extra questions that apply to many, however not all, research:

• To what extent are your findings generalizable to the overall inhabitants (or to the U.S. or to the world if the findings are country-specific)? 
• What function, if any, do social determinants of well being play in your findings? 
• Do your findings recommend the necessity for any explicit adjustments in coverage? 

Discovering commenters unrelated to the examine

It’s essential to incorporate quotes from examine presenters and researchers, nevertheless it’s additionally essential to get the attitude of others not associated to the examine. Ideally, these are clinicians or fellow researchers attending the presentation, which frequently means needing to method of us in these few seconds after the presentation earlier than folks have left the room or the subsequent presentation has began. Listed here are a pair ideas for figuring out these more than likely to remark:

1. If the room has microphones arrange for questions, sit close to a microphone so you may see the attendees who ask questions or supply feedback through the presentation. They normally introduce themselves, but when they don’t, you could possibly see their identify tag and use what they are saying through the Q&A.
2. If their feedback or questions aren’t quote-worthy, you at the least know who they’re and may search for them after the presentation. These of us are sometimes extra keen to speak to a reporter since they’ve already spoken through the presentation. 
3. Search for small teams of two or three folks speaking who appear approachable. Stand politely close to them till they acknowledge you with the intention to introduce your self and ask if they will remark. This allows you to attempt for a number of folks directly, and typically peer strain works in your favor, with one in every of them pushing one other to remark. You may additionally get a number of feedback from a back-and-forth between them.
4. Search for an older clinician who has a number of youthful attendees with them. Typically this can be a senior researcher with medical college students or fellows, which implies the researcher is probably going their teacher and already in “instructor mode.” They’re typically extra keen to speak as a result of they will mannequin for his or her college students find out how to work together with the press.
5. When you preserve putting out, discuss to the moderators. That they had no alternative however to hear to every presentation and should really feel extra snug speaking to a journalist. They’re additionally simpler to search out — in individual, by way of electronic mail, or with the press workplace’s assist — even after everybody has left when you by no means discovered somebody. 
6. If all else fails and nobody will discuss to you, attain out to the press workplace and ask them that can assist you discover somebody who can touch upon the analysis. 
7. When you’re protecting the convention just about, have a look at those that remark within the remark field of the platform if there’s a publicly seen one. If not, attain out to press officers at college medical faculties who can assist establish somebody to touch upon the analysis.

Questions for outdoor consultants/attendees

When you’ve discovered somebody unrelated to the analysis who can touch upon it, listed below are some questions to choose from. There’s hardly ever time to ask all of those questions, however selecting a couple of of those will typically get you what you want, particularly these with asterisks:

• May you please state and spell your identify, your title with levels, your institutional affiliation and your metropolis?*
• Do you’ve got any monetary disclosures or conflicts of curiosity?*
• What did you consider the presentation and/or analysis usually?
• What was Most worthy to you about this presentation?
• To what extent had been any of the findings stunning (or not) and why?*
• What do you suppose is a very powerful take-home message from this analysis or presentation for clinicians of their on a regular basis follow?*
• Is there something right here you had questions, issues or skepticism about?
• How will the data on this presentation be helpful or related to you in your follow or work?*
• What limitations or caveats are essential to contemplate on this examine, particularly if there are any that the researchers didn’t point out or glossed over?*
• Are there any crimson flags or notably troublesome points of the findings which might be price mentioning?  
• Is there the rest you need to add?

Tara Haelle (@TaraHaelle) is AHCJ’s medical studies core topic leader, guiding journalists by way of the jargon-filled shorthand of science and analysis and enabling them to translate the proof into correct info.