The "Master of Communication" on Why Healthcare Professionals Are America's Most Underserved Learners

Rick Davis, President and CEO of Arbor Scientia Group, is on a mission to transform medical education—one presentation at a time.

CARLSBAD, Calif., May 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Rick Davis, CEO of Arbor Scientia Group and co-author of "Best Practices for Medical Educators" with renowned psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry Dr. Stephen M. Stahl, recently appeared on an episode of the "Inspiring Business Leaders Podcast" to share his wealth of information and shed light on the art of effectively and efficiently educating healthcare professionals.

In the podcast, Davis shares his first encounter with a medical symposium, where he expected to witness cutting-edge adult learning in action. What he found instead surprised him.

"I went in thinking, well, this is high science, and this is some of the most important information that anybody could ever share with someone," Davis said. "I was astounded at what I saw. It was the opposite."

That moment of disillusionment became the founding spark for Arbor Scientia Group, a medical education and communications agency conceived with the purpose of changing the way medical education was done in the world.

The Most Underserved Educational Demographic
Davis argues that healthcare professionals represent a uniquely neglected group when it comes to ensuring quality adult learning. Squeezed between managed care mandates, regulatory demands and an explosion of new research and technology, healthcare professionals are expected to absorb more information than ever, yet the quality of how that information is delivered has largely failed to keep pace.

"You might say that doctors might be the most underserved educational demographic that there is when you consider all the different influences, or you might say demands, on their time," Davis said. "So, how in the world do you do everything you're supposed to do and stay on top of it?"

The answer, Davis believes, lies not in more content but in better communication.

The Secret Ingredient: Connection
At the heart of Davis' philosophy is a simple but often overlooked truth: audiences don't just evaluate what you say; they evaluate you.

"When somebody's sitting in an audience … there's going to be three questions that the person is asking you about you if you're the presenter," Davis said. "'Do you care about me?', 'Can you help me?' and 'Can I trust you?' And their answers to those questions will be derived more by what they observe about you than what they hear from you."

Connection challenges are further emphasized in the virtual aftermath of the COVID era, a seismic shift Davis sees as still playing out in ways we don't yet fully understand. Excellent in-person communicators often struggle with presenting on virtual platforms. The reason, research has confirmed, is that virtual platforms strip away most of the body language that is critical to assisting the audience in interpreting the information being shared. This forces the brain to work harder to attempt to fill in the gaps.

Davis' Keys to Effective Speaking
When asked to discuss the most important aspects of being a good public speaker, Davis states the importance of preparing across three areas: yourself, your content and your audience.

In medical education settings, where dinner meetings are common, speakers often launch directly into a presentation without any prior interaction with the room.

"Where's the connection?" Davis said.

In the podcast, Davis also underscores the importance of storytelling or understanding the component pieces of your narrative, their relationship to each other and how to string them together to accelerate understanding.

Perhaps the most critical of all the aspects of effective speaking, according to Davis, is knowing that every audience, whether it's one person or a thousand people, is asking the same three questions about the speaker: "Do you care about me?", "Can you help me?" and "Can I trust you?" When a speaker can earn a "yes" to these three questions, their audience learns and remembers more of the information being shared.

The Importance of Measuring Outcomes
One of Arbor Scientia Group's most distinctive contributions to the field is its insistence on measurement. From the beginning, Davis was struck by how few organizations in medical education actually tracked whether attendees had learned anything.

"I can remember asking somebody in one of the first meetings that I went to, 'What's a successful meeting?'" Davis said. "I was told, 'Well, we got people to come.'"

Shortly thereafter, his company began measuring what attendees knew before a session, what they knew afterward and where gaps remained.

The Paradox of Service
Davis closes his interview on the "Inspiring Business Leaders Podcast" with what he calls his core philosophy, one he would share with the entire world if he could.

"[The] paradox of service … is if you enter any type of relationship with the intent to serve the other individual, you'll be amazed at what happens as the outcome of that because what comes back to you will be many times over than what you ever could accomplish by yourself," Davis said.

It is a fitting philosophy for a man who built a career out of helping others communicate one healthcare professional, one executive, and one audience at a time.

The full podcast can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4PzrJPLeZA.

About Arbor Scientia Group
Arbor Scientia Group (ASG) is an award-winning, GDPR-compliant medical education and communications company based in Carlsbad, California.

ASG has been an established force in the medical education and communications industry since 2005 and has remained a small company dedicated to delivering quality medical education to support their pharmaceutical clients with the ultimate goal of improving patient lives.

Founded by Stephen M. Stahl, MD, PhD, DSc (Hon), DMedSci (Hon, Cambridge), and Richard Davis, ASG sets themselves apart in the agency landscape by not only executing tactics but also acting as a partner to their clients through collaborating on strategic insights pre-product launch and tailoring high-quality content to support products throughout their entire life cycle.

Active in more than 70 countries and able to carry out projects in accordance with GDPR regulations, ASG proudly supports medical content and strategy, meetings and events, training, and creative and digital teams across companies active in neurology, psychiatry, hematology, oncology, rare diseases, immunology, virology, cardiovascular, women's health, urology, diabetes, and gastroenterology disease states. Leveraging a vast network of key opinion leaders in the industry and an in-house staff of PhD medical writers, project management professionals, creative designers, editors, and programmers, ASG demonstrates measurable effectiveness in supporting their clients' milestones and goals with every strategy-supporting tactic created and event facilitated.

ASG was recognized as an Inc. Power Partner in 2024 and 2025 and a Top Veeva Solutions Provider in 2025 and received the BASA Award^® for Best in Class – Outstanding Business of the Year in 2025.

Whether supporting a pharmaceutical company's launch strategy, developing Veeva-optimized content, or pioneering next-generation educational tools, ASG remains a trusted partner and innovator.

Contact ASG today at [email protected] or visit arborscientiagroup.com to learn how ASG can help bring your medical education goals to life through strategic, tailored, and transformative solutions.

SOURCE Arbor Scientia Group