ESMO 2023: which peers and resources did eHCPs trust?

Daniel Ghinn, CEO and Founder of CREATION.co and Anni Neumann, Principal Consultant of CREATION.co attended the European Society of Medical Oncology 2023 Congress, hosted in Madrid, Spain.

eHCPs during ESMO 2023

Healthcare professionals (HCPs) from across the globe arrived in Madrid prior to the congress and did not hesitate to post about their excitement. The very first posts mentioning ESMO 2023 were HCPs posting about their arrival using phrases such as “Buenos dias Madrid!” and “ESMO 2023 we are here!” 

The spike on 21 October during the congress occurred as Dr Tina Cascone and Dr Ben Solomon presented the results of the phase 3 ALINA trial, which met its primary endpoint.

The second major spike came on the third day of the congress, when Dr Tom Powels presented the results of the EV-302 phase 3 trial of enfortumab vedotin in combination with pembrolizumab versus chemotherapy in previously untreated advanced urothelial carcinoma. The presentation received standing ovation by HCPs, who were eager to post their positive reactions online.

Of the pharmaceutical companies being mentioned by eHCPs during ESMO 2023, Johnson & Johnson accounted for a quarter of the conversation. A lot of eHCPs discussed the first results published from the TAR-210 clinical trial, which promised high efficacy in treating non muscle invasive bladder cancer.

While a plethora of HCPs posted online, an interesting observation is that not all posts had the same level of reach. For example, Stephen V. Liu’s posts reached a greater number of accounts than other eHCPs who were more active. 

Taking a closer look at the sharing patterns of eHCPs during the congress, it was observed the most shared individual eHCP posts were those publishing the outcomes of the EV-302 urothelial cancer tria, of enfortumab vedotin in combination with pembrolizumab by Astellas Pharma Inc, one of the posts being published by the key speaker of the trial presentation. Another frequently shared post was a personal selection of the top 10 breast cancer abstracts presented at ESMO 2023 according to Dr Paolo Tarantino.

During ESMO 2023 online healthcare professionals did not hesitate to share publications, website links and other content from various online sources. eHCPs mentioned medical journals and renowned societies and scientific networks hundreds of times and shared their interests with their peers. eHCPs mentioned the social media accounts of the medical societies more often than their websites, with the X account of ESMO being mentioned thousands of times during the congress period.

When analysing the conversation of the top 10 most followed eHCPs during EMSO 2023 geographically, it was identified that 8 out of the 10 were located in the US, despite ESMO being a European event taking place in Madrid. Out of the top 10’s total of 78,000 followers, almost 13,000 were HCPS, where more than half of them were located in the US as well.

With congress being such a huge investment for pharmaceutical companies we understand the need to ensure maximum impact from their expenditure. Being able to understand what is most important to HCPs and who is influencing the online conversation is a great way to achieve this. To find out what this might look like for you, why not watch our webinar ‘How to make the most of your medical congress investment’, or read our 10 ways to maximise congress investment by utilising eHCP insights.