Eric Winer, MD has attended his specialty’s annual medical conference, ASCO, every year for the past 35 years. As an oncologist, he finds clear potential benefits, from learning about the latest research to connecting with colleagues. But for the broader medical community, are these benefits worth the cost of attending?
A recent Doximity poll sheds light on this question, revealing that 42% of clinicians regularly attend their specialty’s annual conference. Attendance rates vary across professions, with 44% attendance for physicians, 37% for NPs and CRNAs, 31% for PAs, and 21% for pharmacists.
Yet despite recognizing their value, many clinicians often find themselves unable to attend due to their professional (22%) or personal responsibilities (17%). In addition, 19% of clinicians are held back by a lack of funding.
The poll, which includes the responses of 3,629 clinicians in October 2024, underscores both the relevance of medical conferences and the current challenges many face in attending them.
On the one hand, conferences can prove vital to clinicians' education and career development. But as the poll shows, not all have the resources to attend.
“There can be variability in conferences. Some can be more valuable than others, and of course, different people have different needs,” Dr. Winer, director of Yale Cancer Center and former ASCO President, told Doximity. “But conferences can help us remain up to date, and as clinicians, it is our absolute responsibility to remain current.”
Clinicians can stay current through online meetings or reading the literature, “but there is something about going to a professional meeting that really complements those other ways of learning,” he said, “and that can be incredibly helpful.”
The Most and Least Likely Conference Attendees
Across all ages, the general trend is that clinicians in the earlier and later stages of their careers are more likely to attend conferences.
About 43% of clinicians 29 and younger and 43% in their 30s regularly attend their specialty’s annual conference. The percentage lowers to 40% for clinicians in their 40s and 39% in their 50s. Then, it rises back to 43% for those in their 60s. Clinicians in their 70s are the most likely to attend conferences regularly (at 46%), likely due to their relatively greater access to capital and availability.
A slightly higher percentage of men (44%) than women (40%) regularly attend their specialty’s annual conference.
Attendance varies more widely among different medical specialties, from as high as 63% to as low as 26%.
The specialties with the highest percentage of attendance tend to be surgical or specialized: allergy and immunology leads the way, with 63% of its clinicians attending their annual conference, followed by ophthalmology (62%), neurology (62%), dermatology (61%), thoracic surgery (58%), neonatology and perinatology (57%), and oncology (56%).
For specialized fields in which recommendations or practices can change suddenly, conferences have become especially important for providing clinicians with the latest research and information.
“What's different about some areas like oncology is the rapidity of change,” Dr. Winer said. “There were years when I was a young faculty member and clinician when we would go to meetings and there'd be very little that was new. That is just simply not the case anymore; you expect and almost always see new findings.”
In contrast, conference attendance is less common in primary care specialties, such as family medicine (28% of clinicians) and internal medicine (29%), that provide a broader range of services. Specialties that tend to rely on complex scheduling, such as emergency medicine (26%), anesthesiology (31%), and ob/gyn (37%), also tend to have lower attendance.
There are also clear distinctions among specialties about what prevents them from going. For example, in dermatology, which has a high rate of attendance, the most common reason clinicians cite for not going is lack of funding (16% of clinicians). Whereas in family medicine, which has a lower attendance rate, the main reason is other professional responsibilities (27%). For neurosurgery, which sits in the middle, the main reason is personal responsibilities (24%).
Weighing the Pros and Cons
For busy clinicians, attending a conference can feel like a zero-sum game. Spending the time to attend means postponing patient care and then working harder when they return. It often means giving up time with family as well.
Then there’s the issue of cost. Though medical societies, hospitals, and health care companies occasionally fund clinicians for conference attendance and travel, it’s more the exception than the rule.
Indeed, the poll results indicate that lack of funding is felt across all age groups. About 22% of clinicians 29 and younger cite lack of funding as their main reason for not attending their specialty’s annual conference. The percentage is nearly the same for those in their 30s (20%), 40s (19%), 50s (20%), 60s (18%), and 70s (17%).
Going to conferences is “not a perk in my private practice, so it costs my own money to go, and any time I take off to go means I lose income,” said psychiatrist Desiree Rahman, MD. “I prefer to use my time off to see my grandchildren.”
Another factor that can deter some clinicians from conferences is limited coverage of topics critical to their work. Having attended IDSA’s annual meeting, IDWeek, for three decades, Edward Johnson, MD stopped attending when he saw dwindling discussion of one topic in particular. “My last meeting was notable for no major symposia on sepsis,” he said, “and after that, I have to admit that I’ve stopped attending.”
Many other clinicians, however, believe the benefits of conferences can still outweigh the costs.
For one, most conferences provide CME credits necessary for medical licensing. There is also the opportunity to learn about new research findings firsthand.
“Sometimes it's hard to appreciate the impact of new research when you're hearing about it in person compared with when you're doing it virtually,” said Dr. Winer, who described a memorable in-person experience at ASCO 2005.
“When the adjuvant Herceptin trials [for HER2-positive breast cancer] were first reported, it was a wow moment,” he recalled. “The research received a standing ovation, and there were people in the audience who saw the results and began tearing up. It’s hard to replace that in any other way.”
Another advantage of attending conferences for some is the hard-to-quantify value of connecting with colleagues from around the world.
“It's not just about meeting old friends and chatting, it's about sharing professional experiences, which can be incredibly valuable,” Dr. Winer said. Such interactions can lead to critical working relationships or prompt new research projects.
For clinicians like plastic surgeon Pio Valenzuela II, MD, the benefits of attending conferences can change over time.
“Early in my career, I attended medical conferences to learn about the latest trends,” said Dr. Valenzuela, who has attended numerous conferences related to his specialty.
It was not until later on that Dr. Valenzuela began to network with intention, seeking out specific people at conferences to get their advice or opinions. “Eventually, I got to meet and know some colleagues who attended the same conferences,” he said. “This became significant in referring people from different parts of the country to a specialist I know. It has been very gratifying.”
What Makes a Good Meeting
But beyond new research and networking, conferences need to be well organized to be worth the effort it takes to attend them. According to Dr. Winer’s experience, that likely entails efficiently run meetings, easy-to-access locations, and bringing something new to the table.
“One of the secrets to running a good meeting is keeping a fair amount of it pretty similar from year to year but always changing part of it up,” he said. “You want to innovate. You can’t be afraid of making a mistake.”
Such efforts have helped some medical societies organize conferences that clinicians feel justify the time and expenses required to attend. Dr. Winer, for his part, noticed a strong post-pandemic rebound at recent oncology conferences, including ASCO.
“Tens of thousands of attendees and an eight-to-one ratio of in-person to online attendance … that speaks to the fact that oncologists really like attending big research-oriented meetings,” he said.
“When you're with a large group of your colleagues, there are certain things that you feel that just are particularly special,” he added. “And although some of these meetings may feel at times to be routine to some of the attendees, there's a lot of thought that goes into them every year.”
Do you attend your specialty conference? Why or why not? Share in the comments.
Illustration by Jennifer Bogartz
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