Live Reformation: How Live Courses Can Survive in the 4.0 Era, Vol. 7

Nowadays, it’s necessary to adopt a format that allows attendees to watch and participate regardless of their location. In order to solicit sponsorship from the companies that fund the live courses, the format must be more supportive of the medical professionals and stakeholders than ever in order to maximize the promotional effect of the products offered by the companies. To achieve this, the door must be opened to medical professionals and stakeholders who have traditionally been unable to participate in live courses, which will be achieved by holding hybrid or online courses instead of sticking to an on-site format. Although the cost of the broadcast varies depending on which format is chosen, there is no need to stick to an on-site or hybrid format if the needs of the participants can be met online.

The organizer does not have to be a celebrity cardiologist or a leading operator in the region, as long as he or she can provide value to the viewers and participants. With advances in medical equipment and procedural technology, the Live 4.0 era requires that value be provided not by transmitting treatments that can only be performed by a "master operator," but by providing what satisfies the latent needs of an increasingly diverse group of individual cardiologists.

This is advocated as a “1-1 value provision,” which is defined as satisfying each participant's “what to know,” “what to learn,” and “what to do” on an individual basis. The live course format is required in the era of Live 4.0, in which each individual need can be met by the medical professionals and personnel involved in catheterization by participating in the live course. It’s the live course that stands to gain the most with regards to “sharing and developing techniques together,” rather than the perspective of “handing down techniques” or “passing on techniques.”

The core of the live demonstration is catheterization. The cardiologist performing the procedure should not be a celebrity, but rather a cardiologist who has his or her own particular approach to a particular lesion and who treats it safely and effectively. Their methods cannot be exclusive to that person, but rather they must be reproducible so that anyone may learn and practice. Participants do not come to see a technique that only the celebrity cardiologist can perform, but rather spend their valuable time attending a live demonstration to get suggestions on how to maximize their own skills to treat the patients in front of them.

Once the live demonstrations that form the basis of the live courses are established, the rest of the program can be enhanced. The live course itself exists as a platform, and the image is to incorporate within it the value (programs) that can be provided to healthcare professionals and personnel involved in catheterization, including live demonstrations. The individual values (programs) within the platform should consist of castings that are recognized by all participants. Or it should provide content that everyone perceives as valuable.

When offering programs provided by other institutes on the platform, it’s important to review the content together with the organizer to avoid divergence from the purpose of the live course, rather than providing a slot and leaving everything to them. It is precisely when individual study groups are included in the course that great care must be taken. It’s also important to remember that unlike past live courses, participants in Live 4.0 are customers, investing their own time and money, and they may not attend the next year's course if it does not satisfy their needs.

About the Author: Satoru Hashimoto
After graduating from Bellevue University in Nebraska, USA, in 1994, Mr. Hashimoto returned to Japan to work for a foreign healthcare consulting company before joining Johnson & Johnson. After a career in sales and marketing in the field of catheter intervention, he established TCROSS Co., Ltd. In 2005. He enrolled in the Graduate School of Management, GLOBIS University in 2019 and graduated in 2021 with an MBA (Master of Business Administration). He is a full member of the Japan Science and Technology (JST) Journalists Conference and the International Science Writers Association (ISWA).