Using ePosters to Increase the Reach of Your Scientific Poster

As a reliable provider of multimedia solutions, we use our 25 years of experience in the healthcare industry to develop innovative solutions that make our clients’ lives easier. When we started to observe the increasing demands on our clients’ time at healthcare conferences, we recognized the need for a time-saving solution that would free them up to work the room a little more.

If there’s one thing we know, it’s that digital assets save time and money. So in 2008, we introduced interactive scientific posters as a new service offering. These digital versions of scientific posters are engaging, informative, and can be used as an enduring asset after the congress is over.

Fast forward to 2014 and most healthcare congresses are holding “e-poster” sessions as part of their annual conferences, including the American Heart Association (AHA), the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM) and the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA). Presenters simply plug their iPad or laptops into digital kiosks around the room to “present” a digital version of their posters. The presenters are then free to move around the room, while audience members guide themselves through their presentation.

Of course, this new presentation method requires e-posters to have the right features to engage audience members while maintaining integrity and compliance. Here are some features that will help you accomplish that.

The Basics

Navigation. In e-posters, navigation becomes one of the most critical components of your poster. On average, a user will spend under 5 minutes with your poster. Your greatest responsibility is to make sure your most important points are easy to find and easy to read. Like any digital tool if your audience can’t find what they want right away, they will simply move on. Design navigation tools like pan and zoom so they are easy to locate. Use simple, intuitive navigation that’s based on devices your audience uses every day, like their smartphones and tablets.

Advanced Search. Each disease and treatment has its own pain points. Your colleagues and the experts in your disease state know exactly what they are looking for as soon as they step in front of your poster. Know those topics and make them easy and immediate to find with user-friendly search functionality that focuses on the main key words associated with the disease or product.

Dynamic Links. The key benefit of an e-poster is the unlimited capacity for information. Dynamic links allow you to expand your content infinitely. We suggest including: additional references, clinical reprints, important safety information, or links to your unbranded company website.

Mobility. Of course, the most important part of digital implementation today is that you are always optimized for mobile devices. There should be a link from the e-poster that goes to a mobile version that can be viewed on any smartphone or tablet.

Bells and Whistles

Audio Narration. Audio narration can be a nice addition to any research poster. Especially if its the actual author of the poster providing the voice over. An agency that specializes in multimedia for the healthcare industry will be able to seamlessly integrate this into your poster. And the user-friendly navigation should make the play button easy to find.

Animation and Video. Interactive scientific posters allow you to take advantage of the mind’s preference for images over text. Animation or video in a scientific poster can range anywhere from an advanced mechanism of action or drug delivery method to a simple animated chart or graphic that draws attention to your most important piece of data.

Metrics. Metrics are an easy way to identify the points in your poster that audience members were most engaged with. This information is valuable as pre-marketing research that will help you develop your messaging or identify opportunities for further research. You can get all of this information simply by tracking each click on your poster.

Parting Thoughts

E-posters are a new and innovative way to present data. Presenters now have the opportunity to provide more information to more people with less manpower. In today’s “do more with less” culture, everyone can appreciate new thinking that saves time and allows us to focus on making the important personal connections that can sometimes be hard to get to.

Creative MediaWorks has 25 years of experience supporting our healthcare and medical communication clients with cutting-edge multimedia solutions. If you are interested in any of the ideas we’ve discussed in this blog, call Creative MediaWorks or send us an email to speak with our Multimedia Manager at info@creativemediaworks.com. Our digital experts will help you develop a custom solution that’s tailored to your brand’s needs and the needs of your audience.

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