Art of Creating Digital Slides for Medical Presentation
The Art of Creating Digital Slides for Medical Presentation
Reynaldo O. Joson, MD, MHA, MHPEd, MSc Surg
February 22, 2012
Introduction
In practically all medical presentations nowadays, presenters use digital slides as visual aids. Practically, nobody uses overhead transparencies anymore.
A digital slide is a single page of a presentation created with software such as Microsoft PowerPoint or OpenOffice Impress. The most common software being used currently is Microsoft PowerPoint. A presentation is composed of several slides.
For the past 30 years that I have been exposed to medical presentations here and abroad, and by everybody (inclusive of medical students, residents, fellows, and consultants), I have always felt the urge to impart my thoughts, perceptions, opinions, and recommendations on how to prepare proper visual aids for medical presentation. This is triggered by my frequent observation of poor quality of visual aids in medical presentations (from my personal viewpoint) and I think the absence of an instruction or primer is a major cause for this.
Circa 1981, I wrote primers and gave lectures, imparting tips, particularly to surgical residents and colleagues, on how to make proper medical presentations. Part of the tips include advices on how to prepare visual aids, specifically, using overhead transparencies and slides, at that time, still using Kodachrome, Ektachrome, and Kodalith films, and not yet, using the Microsoft Powerpoint that we have today.
See:
https://sites.google.com/site/digitalmedicalpresentation/presenting-in-medical-conferences
https://sites.google.com/site/digitalmedicalpresentation/home
The advent of computers and LCD (liquid-crystal display) projectors has revolutionized the creation of visual aids for medical presentation. As mentioned, nowadays, practically, nobody uses overhead transparencies anymore . What remain are slides, not film-slides anymore, but digital slides. The Kodachrome, Ektachrome and Kodalith slides have been phased out because of higher expense and inefficiency. Nowadays, slides are readily and easily created by computers, most commonly with Microsoft Powerpoint. These are the digital slides, which are not only easy to create but also easy to manipulate and edit.
The advent of digital cameras has likewise revolutionized the creation of visual aids for medical presentations in terms of ease in evaluation of quality, inclusion, preparation, manipulation and editing. One can quickly evaluate the quality of pictures just taken and can repeat a shot if indicated, in a jiffy, without waiting for a week for the films to be processed, as when one uses an analog camera.
Today, I have decided to write “The Art of Creating Digital Slides for Medical Presentation.” This will be a continuation of my urge to impart my thoughts, perceptions, opinions, and recommendations (TPOR) on how to prepare proper visual aids for medical presentation in the era of modern technology.
Note: I created a website on February 17, 2012, with the title of Digital Medical Presentation – Medical Photography and Digital Slides Creation. The URL is https://sites.google.com/site/digitalmedicalpresentation/home This site contains all my writings and notes on the topics.
Now, on the topic on hand: “The Art of Creating Digital Slides for Medical Presentation.”
Objective
My sole objective for writing this TPOR is to give tips on how to create quality digital slides for use in medical presentations. I will present the quality parameters for digital slides and then give my opinions and recommendations on how to create proper and poor digital slides. I will give illustrative examples.
Disclosures and Delimitations
Before proceeding any further, I will make two disclosures and three delimitations.
Disclosure 1: I am not a professional photographer who can teach people on how to use and manipulate a digital camera to produce quality pictures to be placed in digital slides. Therefore, I will not be discussing on the different types of cameras and how to use them.
Delimitation 1: What I will impart here will just be the picture-products after using a digital camera, more specifically, on what quality parameters and criteria that should be targetted when taking pictures to be included in digital slides for medical presentation.
Disclosure 2: As of February 2012, I don’t have much experience with medical videos which can be integrated into digital slides. Therefore, I will not be discussing on medical videos for medical presentations.
Delimitation 2: What I will impart here will just be the quality parameters and criteria that should be targetted when taking still pictures to be included in medical presentation.
Delimination 3: This third delimitation can actually be deduced from the title of this write-up, just on digital slides using Microsoft Powerpoint, not including videos, for medical presentation. Furthermore, because of lack of experience, I will also refrain from giving tips in doing animations in digital slide creation.
Digital Slides in Medical Presentation, Grouping and Kinds
A digital slide is a single page of a presentation created with software. The most common software being used currently is Microsoft PowerPoint. A presentation is composed of several slides.
The digital slides to be used in a medical presentation can be classified into 3 groups, namely, introductory slides, body slides, and concluding slides. These correspond to the conventionally prescribed parts of a talk, speech, and lecture, namely, introduction, body, and conclusion.
The introductory slides consist of the title of the presentation, background information, priming slides, presentation objectives, levelling of expectations, etc.
The body slides consist of the main contents of the presentation.
The concluding slides consist of summary, conclusion, references, contact numbers for continual interaction, thank you note, etc.
There must be slides on these 3 conventionally expected parts of a talk, lecture, and presentation. The number and nature of the slides will be dictated by the presentation as planned out by the presenter particularly, in terms of contents and allotment time. All slides created, whether they be in the introduction, body, and conclusion, must possess the qualities of proper visual aids. The ultimate target of using proper digital slides is to promote understanding of the message in each slide and in the end, the whole presentation.
Digital slides can be classified into word slides, table slides, picture slides, combined word-table or word-picture slides, based on the main contents of the each slide. A slide that contains words only or predominantly words is a word slide. A slide that contains a table for its message is a table slide. A slide that contains still pictures from digital cameras and drawings, illustrations, and documents converted into digital picture format, as main contents for its message is a picture slide. (See illustrative examples.)
Parameters of Quality of Digital Slides and Recommendations
Regardless of types of digital slides, the two big parameters of quality or proper visual aids consist of the following: CLEAR and CLEAN.
To expound on the parameters and criteria of quality digital slides and recommendations on how to achieve them, I prepared a set of slides created using Microsoft PowerPoint with slide size being 10 in x 7.5 in with landscape orientation. I included illustrative examples of proper and poor digital slides. I strongly recommend looking at the said set of slides for maximal understanding and learning.
The slides can be seen in https://sites.google.com/site/digitalmedicalpresentation/home
I like to end this write-up with a recommendation that all presenters must create CLEAR and CLEAN digital slides if they are using them as visual aids in their medical presentations and if they want to promote understanding of the message in each slide and in the end, the whole presentation.
Another advice is that during the presentation, a presenter should not apologize for inclusion of poor digital slides. In the preparation for the medical presentation, he should already outrightly exclude poor digital slides, not to include them anymore.
ROJ@12feb22; 12feb25