Medical Service Company takes forum virtual

CLEVELAND - Medical Service Company recently held its 19th annual education forum with a new twist. This year, the provider live streamed it nationwide.

“Technology really flattens out the world and makes things a lot more easy to access, and that's what we're trying to do,” said Josh Marx, managing director of sleep and vice president of business development. “We're trying to make this content more accessible, because we think it's valuable.”

The Jean S. Marx Memorial Education Forum offers up to seven CEUs to respiratory therapists and polysomnographic sleep technologists. Topics range from how pregnancy affects respiration to advances in OSA management.

About 200 people attended this year's event—10% virtually—as well as more than a dozen vendors.

“We put in a ton of work to make sure the event is comprehensive and valuable, and we felt like we were doing a disservice to all of our partners that couldn't (physically be there),” Marx said.

Founded in 1950 as a pharmacy and medical equipment provider, Medical Service Company specializes in chronic-respiratory disease management and has 30 locations in six states.

“These types of events are often very local in nature and that's because people are used to getting in their car and driving to an event, sitting down and listening,” Marx said. “But we also know that all of us consume information differently, from podcasts to virtual webinars, email, Twitter and Facebook.”

For those attendees who prefer to learn and network in person, that platform will continue to be available; however, as technology evolves, so too will attendees' options, says Marx.

“Who knows, maybe we'll be doing it through TikTok and Instagram in a couple years,” he said. “We'll just keep on refining it based on how the consumers want to consume it.”