Note to Med Shows: Dump the Tchotchkes

SALT LAKE CITY—Attendees at the Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Assn. Annual Meeting & Exhibition held here June 21-24 at least found a way to laugh about one of their industry's upcoming challenges, but that didn't mean they weren't taking it seriously.

As the U.S. Congress, state legislatures and professional health care associations – most significantly, the American Medical Assn. – have begun to dramatically restrict the ways pharmaceutical and medical device makers can market their products to physicians and other health care professionals, the what-if stories were on the lips of nearly every one of the 800 attendees.

“This could be a very big deal,” said Kevin Wohlfort, associate director of publications and development for the American Urological Assn. “It's going to impact our revenues.”

Kristine Rapp, vice president of global ethics and compliance for Hospira, said, “State laws may seriously affect your ability to succeed.”

That was the serious talk.

On the lighter side – albeit evidence that the subject was preoccupying everybody's minds – the musical comedy troupe The Water Coolers also had something to say about it during an opening session parody when, to the tune of “Those Were the Days,” they sang: “We'd give small towns away, we'd rent Elvis for a day, those were the days, Doc, those were the days.”

The days they referred to were before the industry-mandated PhRMA and AdvaMed codes began to limit contact between physicians and pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers in the mid-1990s.

The days ahead could be even more challenging for many who organize and exhibit at health care shows. Laws on the books in six states already limit or require doctors to report gifts they receive from the manufacturers. Those, and bills either pending or proposed in four more states, would make the kinds of inexpensive gifts used to lure attendees into a tradeshow more complicated.

And that's not all.

Working its way through the American Medical Assn. bureaucracy is a proposal that would recommend that physicians and health care institutions refuse financial support from the private sector for medical education. Ultimately, it could mean the demise of sponsorships that subsidize continuing medical education – the lifeblood of health care conventions, meetings and tradeshows.

“What do you think that will do to the cost of your show?” Robert Batte, a partner in Conexus Health, asked rhetorically.

It could mean meeting planners and show organizers would have to raise the registration fees to pay for the education sessions physicians have come to depend on for their relicensing requirements. It also could mean the physicians would look to competing CME providers – online, for instance – as an alternative to the traditional health care convention, rendering the showfloor that often accompanies that convention irrelevant.

“This is not your grandmother's health care,” Rapp said. “This is really different.”

Many HCEA members are convinced physicians would not be persuaded to prescribe a drug or recommend a medical device because of a gift they might have received in a tradeshow booth. Likewise, it is the case that very few, if any, health care manufacturers have been found to violate any of the gift reporting laws already on the books in states like Minnesota (which has the strictest requirements currently in place: A manufacturer cannot spend more than $50 in one year on gifts, meals or marketing expenses for any one individual).

Also, the proposed recommendation on restricting funding for medical education has cleared only the first of a number of AMA committees and councils that must approve it. Even if the proposal is ultimately accepted, the process would take at least a year.

Still, the writing appears to be on the wall. Bills have also been introduced in both houses of the U.S. Congress.

As the cost of health care increases, the public is looking to the government to solve the problem.

“The arena of health care is under a microscope,” Rapp said. “People are looking at how money can be spent more wisely.”

Although many at the HCEA meeting were concerned about the impending regulatory atmosphere, others tried to emphasize it hasn't come to pass yet – and that lobbying on their part is essential.

“I think we should push back a bit,” said Joseph Agnese, senior convention marketing manager for Nova Nordisk Pharmaceuticals. “At some point, we should say enough is enough.”