Webinars: a powerful form of education

This time one year ago, we were on the cusp of a pandemic which would change our global society and present unprecedented challenges. Since that time, our healthcare professionals have been astounding in their dedication to supporting their communities, and their tenacity and innovation in the face of incredibly difficult circumstances.

Neurology Academy responded to the needs of neurological healthcare professionals across the UK by radically altering the format and style of our educational offerings. We embraced the digital revolution quickly, and we were able to deliver expert guidance and support directly to our healthcare professionals from the outset of the pandemic.

Webinars: our response to virtual education

With 49 webinars (43 live and 6 non-live) delivered since March 2020, Neurology Academy provided the neurological community with the most current information available on COVID-19 in relation to specific neurological conditions, including multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson's and dementia.

Over 94 individual expert speakers from across the UK, as well as some based internationally, shared their experiences, views, innovations, and a plethora of tools and practical ideas for supporting their patients and themselves, amidst this health crisis. All webinars were also made available on demand after airing to enable our community to view or review content at their own convenience during these turbulent times.

Despite the pressure the NHS has been under, the uptake for our webinars has been overwhelming, with almost 5,000 live webinar registrations and over 15,000 on-demand webinar views to date. Clear evidence that our healthcare professionals continue to place priority on shared expertise, relevant education and new information to help them deliver the best possible care they can.

Due to our established reputation and the recognised quality of our education and support, we have seen our Neurology Academy healthcare professional community grow exponentially since the launch of our webinars.

MS Academy

We have delivered over 32 MS Academy webinars thus far, equal to over 1,878 total minutes of live educational material and attended by over 1600 delegates in total. Some of our most popular sessions have addressed the use of disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) during the pandemic.

On average MS Academy webinars attracted 56 attendees per live webinar, with 74% of attendees watching our webinars for 50 or more minutes.

Our most popular session post-live looking at safe lymphocyte counts has received over 2,300 views on-demand, whilst a practical session on remote management of MS has had more than 1,300 views to date, and our DMT debate session has garnered over 1000 views and counting!

Parkinson’s Academy

Parkinson’s Academy is our most established community, and as expected we have had the highest engagement in the form of attendance, with approx. 100 attendees per webinar. On average 82% of our Parkinson’s Academy webinar attendees were found to watch the webinars for 50+ minutes, which is our best retention rate overall.

Post-live, our most popular Parkinson's webinars such as Psychosis in Parkinson’s has received over 500 views, and both the use of exercise in managing Parkinson's and the UK and international perspective on the impact of COVID-19 sessions have each amassed over 300 views.

Dementia Academy

Whilst Dementia Academy offered the smallest number of new webinars with 10 delivered for 250 registrations, the impact of our support for dementia professionals during the past 12 months has seen a 410% increase in web traffic to the Dementia Academy's pages.

Our Dementia webinars attract an average 38 attendees per webinar, 70% of whom attend the webinars over for over 50 mins.

Despite the challenging circumstances we continue to find ourselves in almost 12 months after the first coronavirus lockdown, our website views, numbers of users and reach - both in delegates and speakers - continue to grow. With our webinar audience consistently containing approximately 86% clinical specialist/HCPs from the UK and Ireland, comprising one third doctors and one third nurses, we are thrilled to be able to continually support the NHS workforce so essential to supporting people with neurological conditions at this time.

These infographics, summarising our activities around webinar provision over the past 12 months, demonstrate the reach and impact that Neurology Academy is proud to have had during this unprecedented time.