Medical meetings have continued to grow, despite the overall economy and other pressures the sector has faced in recent years.

The Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association recently released its annual list of the top 50 largest U.S. medical meetings held in 2011, and average reported professional attendance increased 3.2 percent from 2010, while average reported total attendance increased 2.2 percent.

These results suggest an uptick in the number of medical professionals deciding to attend these bellwether events, according to HCEA officials.

The Radiological Society of North America regained the top spot for total reported attendance at 59,097.

The Greater New York Dental Meeting snagged second place, with 53,789 total reported attendees, although GNYDM ranked first for the largest medical meeting when ranked by professional attendance alone.

Coming in a very close third was the FIME Show, with 52,723 total attendees.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and Society for Neuroscience (SfN) round out the top five medical meetings, with 31,800 and 31,500 total reported attendees, respectively.

Tom Shimala, director of technical exhibits for the RSNA Annual Meeting, which is just around the corner Nov. 25-30 at Chicago’s McCormick Place, said there were several attributes in the meeting’s nearly 100-year history, including the people and specific features, that has led to its success.

Here are three major attributes that he mentioned:

• “RSNA’s annual meeting provides an enormous amount of relevant science and education for our radiology professionals, including reports on the latest scientific advances in medical imaging, fulfillment of their continuing medical education requirements, and refreshers on many key topics in radiology.”

• “Our exhibiting companies know that the RSNA meeting attracts many key purchasing decision makers and influencers and that we offer the space and state-of-the-art technology they need to effectively exhibit their products and services.”

• “For the last 28 consecutive years, the city of Chicago and the McCormick Place facility have done a great job supporting RSNA’s complex meeting logistics requirements and our attendees’ needs for world-class and reliable housing, dining, transportation and entertainment.”

RSNA also has worked hard to engage attendees in several ways to get and keep them excited about coming to the show.

Shimala said “game-based” sessions such as RSNA DxLive™ that incorporated interactive technologies were really popular, as well as RSNA’s virtual meeting, which made its debut last year and allowed attendees to experience highlights from the physical meeting and earn continuing education credits.

Sessions with an international focus also attracted attendees.

“Our continuing “(Region) Presents” series highlights science and techniques from featured regions,” Shimala said.

He added, “Last yea,. India Presents appeared before a packed room and fostered collaboration with the Indian Radiological and Imaging Association.”

These efforts and others have paid off, with last year’s meeting showing year-over-year increases in several areas, such as member attendance (4 percent); medical physicist attendance (a record 17 percent); and radiologist attendance, which also was a record, with 16,272.