MedicinePPT Notes
OK -- this has nothing to do with PowerPoint, but it is a great lesson on how you can explain medical terminology so well with proper animation and a good script! Head to the NPR site to see this amazing video that shows you how a virus spreads within the human body.
Guy van der Walt is a 3D animator with over 8 years of experience, and the owner of Plasticboy Pictures, a company that offers a collection of medically accurate 3D models that can be downloaded from their website, and used in the creation of medical imagery.
In this conversation, Guy talks about imagery using the human anatomy, and how 3D models can help.
Geetesh: Medical art often involves human anatomy to be depicted – yet it is difficult to source imagery of this sort. How do your 3D anatomy models help people in this regard?
Guy: The creation of medical diagrams is a fairly vast field in that there is such a wide variety of applications and also countless scenarios to be depicted. For this reason one often finds it difficult to source the exact image that one desires to portray a specific message. Pre-existing image libraries are limited, while the artistic style variations are frequently outdated for the contemporary media of today. This is where the use of 3D models come to the rescue. One is able save massive amounts of time by downloading a trusted "virtual anatomy puppet" that can be manipulated in order to create an infinite number of medical diagrams. Our human anatomy 3D models thus serve as a foundation for the designing of unique medical diagrams. Artists can choose to render these as they see fit. For example, they might end up looking like an x-ray, a generic diagram, flat color artwork or even photo realism. Models can also be used to create animated sequences, something that the limits of traditional medical imagery does not cater for.
At plasticboy.co.uk we spend around 50% of our production time researching various medical resources in order to ensure we only construct medically accurate human anatomy For this reason our models are used in many areas, such as educational material, TV documentaries, advertising, print artwork etc.
Geetesh: Are there any easy 3D app that users can work with to reposition and render your models if they don’t have a 3D background?
Guy: Our models are built using Autodesk Softimage, the same software that's implemented by many large Hollywood studios to create special effects for movies. This allows users to be extremely flexible with our product, offering them the ability to edit just about any aspect of the 3D models in our collection in order to suit their unique requirements. Unfortunately for this freedom does come at a cost and one therefore does require at least a basic knowledge of one of the more high-end 3D packages, such as 3ds Max, Softimage, Maya, Lightwave or similar.
Having said that, there are some very basic software programs available that do allow one to open 3D models, view them, by rotating, zooming in and ultimately exporting still images as JPEGs. One such program is called Deep Exploration by Right Hemisphere. While this software is very basic and will not allow for any editing of the 3D models in any way, it is user-friendly for beginners. This application is also a great tool for converting file formats.
Labels: 3d, anatomy, clip art, interview, medicine, visuals
Carmine Gallo is a communications coach for the world’s most admired brands. He is also the author of Fire Them Up, a book that teaches motivation and inspiration. His client list includes Intel, Chase, Barclays, IBM, Nokia, and many others. He is an Emmy award-winning journalist and former anchor, host, and business correspondent for CNN, Fox, CNET, and CBS. In this guest column, Carmine talks about the subject of personalizing your presentations with the human face.
The image of a human face can make a powerful impact. Attaching a patient's photo to his or her file makes radiologists feel "more connected" to the patient. The radiologists, in turn, provide "longer, more meticulous reports" for those patients, according to research presented at last December's annual conference of the Radiological Society of North America and recently reported in The New York Times.
Interestingly, at the same radiological conference the previous year, I helped a large medical equipment company create a presentation to introduce a breakthrough CT scan. While most presentations were data heavy, we chose to personalize the technology by introducing the audience to two fictional patients. We put a human face on the subjects by showing photographs of "David," a 62-year-old patient who walked into his doctor's office with chest discomfort, and "Susan," a 57-year-old who was taken to the emergency room after being found lying on her kitchen floor. Of course, these were hypothetical stories but they reflected scenarios in which the CT scan would be used. With each scenario, the presenters educated the audience about the technology and showed how, in each case, the new equipment could save lives by leading to a faster and more reliable diagnosis The presentation won an award by the Los Angeles chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.
The presentation worked for the same reason radiologists take more care with X-rays that are accompanied by the patient's photo. Emotions govern decision-making. In Emotionomics, Dan Hill writes, "Humans are extremely visual: We think largely in images, not words." Hill explains that 80% of what humans retain is visually based. "It's important to be rationally on-message. But it's even more imperative to be on-emotion. A company's message will only be successful if it attracts interest and emotionally appeals to the receiver." Consider the following tips on making your own presentations resonate with your audience.
- Show real people using your product. Visit the Intel Web site. The home page introduces customers to average people who are using Intel products to improve their lives or their business. You'll read about a photographer who uses Intel-based systems for photo editing or an entrepreneur using the latest 3G-connected netbook to keep in touch when she travels. Intel builds and sells computer chips—products that few people ever see. Adding a face to the marketing materials, online, or in a presentation in front of a live audience helps create an emotional connection with potential customers.
- Add faces. Your presentations probably contain plenty of text, charts, and data. It's time to add some photos of faces so that your audience gets a visual cue when you talk about how your product, service, or company improves people's lives. Ideally, use professional photos of real customers. But at the very least, buy stock photographs and avoid the cheesy images that come standard with PowerPoint.
- Create hypothetical scenarios so your audience can imagine themselves using your product. Advertisers in the banking field have known this for some time. Most ads and Web sites for retirement services show faces of a satisfied man, woman, or couple who are secure in their knowledge that they have enough money to meet their needs, all thanks to the company's products. Just as we introduced the new CT scan with faces of our two patients, find a way to create story lines that leave your audience with a clear idea of how your product might benefit them. You might want to start with the example to give your audience the overview of what it does, followed by specifics. These scenarios are best introduced in presentations and on your company's Web site.
Remember, the image of a human face can make a powerful impact. Keep this in mind, and try to use the tips I describe above to forge a connection with your audience during your next presentation. Good luck!
Vadlo is a new search engine that's different in two ways:
- Vadlo is geared towards the vertical market -- and it only searches content related to biology research related information.
- Vadlo doesn't really look at just pages -- it indexes five categories of documentation -- these are Protocols, Online Tools, PowerPoints, Databases, and Software
I found their PowerPoint search quite amazing -- and asked the folks at Vadlo about their new search engine. While the Vadlo user-base is growing rapidly, the team at Vadlo is focused on developing the content. Here's a statement that the Vadlo Scientists sent to me to put up on the MedicinePPT site:
"We believe PowerPoint presentations are very useful tools -- more than they are recognized as such. A teacher preparing a lecture, an executive preparing for a business meeting, a clinician reporting a case study, or a scientist preparing for the departmental seminar can get a lot of angles on the subject matter by quickly looking at similar presentations and refine her/his own accordingly.
"The Vadlo index is built on the PowerPoints which have relevance to the following, everything else is filtered out.
- Biology Research - Organisms, Genes, Pathways, Mechanisms etc.
- Academia - Grants & Funding, Publication, Interviewing etc.
- Bioinformatics - Statistics, Software, Methods etc.
- Biology Education - College level Biology lectures, Biodiversity, Environment etc.
- Medical/Clinical - Diseases, Conditions, Case Studies, Intervention, Drugs etc.
- Library - Journals, Open-access, Peer-review, Literature databases etc.
- Biotech/Pharma Business - Technology transfer, Patents, Products, Clusters etc.
The Vadlo site also has a cool collection of medical cartoons that you can use in your PowerPoints freely.
Labels: medicine, powerpoint, vadlo
Greg Friese, MS, NREMT-P is president of Emergency Preparedness Systems LLC and a paramedic, educator, author, and outdoor enthusiast. To learn more and to receive rapid e-learning design and production tips subscribe to the EPS blog at their site.
Geetesh: Tell us more about yourself, Emergency Preparedness Systems LLC, and the training programs you create.
Greg: I am the founder and president of Emergency Preparedness Systems LLC. EPS does four things:
- We create narrated multimedia Flash movies for emergency responders.
- We convert existing classroom training for online delivery.
- We design and deliver new lessons and curriculum for online delivery that honor student's knowledge, experience, and time.
- We teach our proven rapid e-learning for emergency responders production process to educators and training officers.
Geetesh: Why do you use PowerPoint as the starting point for the creation of these programs? And what else do you use to enhance and distribute these programs.
Greg: We use PowerPoint for several reasons. First of all it is an excellent tool for us to storyboard a lesson. During initial production, each slide is given a working title and the script for the audio narration is written in the notes view. As production and editing progresses, notes for images, objects, and animations are added to the notes view. Once the script is finalized, slide production begins which includes a descriptive slide title and sub-title, insertion of images and objects, and animation formatting.
The final step is to convert the PowerPoint slides to Flash using Articulate Presenter. The audio is inserted and synchronized with the PowerPoint slide animations. The end user watches a narrated Flash movie inside the Articulate Presenter player. They may not even be aware that they are watching a movie that was created with PowerPoint.
We also use another Articulate product called Engage to create and insert custom Flash learning objects into the PowerPoint. The Articulate Engage Interactions publish inside the Articulate Presenter movie.
Labels: articulate, medicine, online_presentations, powerpoint, training
Motifolio is a new site that provides a range of biomedical clip art -- these are available in topics like human and animal forms, cell, cell organelle, cell protein, nucleic acid, antibody, microorganism, labware, etc.
Most of the stuff is very affordable -- and they also have some free samples that you can download. Go to the Motfolio site for more details and to explore their clip art collection.
Labels: art, biomedical, clip art, medicine
Echo Swinford (pictured to the right) is a Microsoft PowerPoint MVP (Most Valuable Professional). When she's not working on new media, she is answering almost all the questions on the PowerPoint newsgroup. Echo is also the co-author of Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 Complete Makeover Kit, published by Que. She also creates tons of presentations for the medical industry -- you can contact her for your presentation requirements through her site: Echo's Voice.
Geetesh: Tell us more about yourself, and the PowerPoint work you do in the medical industry.
Well, I started working for a medical education communications company in 1997. The owner was considering outsourcing her slide work, but she was worried about quality control. I knew my quality control was good in general, so I proposed that she let me create her slides. I didn’t tell her that I didn’t really know PowerPoint, so when she agreed, I had to learn it – and learn it fast!
I think my background in journalism and desktop publishing has really helped me with slide development, especially if you think of it as page layout on a large scale. I know that my proofreading skills are a definite plus, and the fact that I’m a bit of a math and puzzle geek sure hasn’t hurt!
Here I am, 11 years later, still developing presentations for a variety of industries. In the healthcare and medical education industry specifically, I do a lot of slide cleanup work, making presentations consistent and visible for conferences and meetings as well as developing collateral materials like scientific posters and syllabi. I also do a lot of promotional decks, speaker-led presentations, CME materials, and stand-alone enduring education modules that are distributed in a variety of ways. In addition, I can often be found with the production crew backstage at meetings, running speaker review or minding the presentation equipment. I love being self-employed, so I have the opportunity to do all of those things and more (like write PowerPoint books!).
Geetesh: What sets the presentations created for medicine to be different than conventional PowerPoints?
Echo: Honestly, I don’t know that there is such a thing as a “conventional” PowerPoint! PowerPoint is used in so many ways….
One thing common to many medical presentations, though, is the sheer amount of data-driven slides. That means lots of charts, lots of tables, and lots of really text-heavy slides. I find that the extreme mix of chart slides is always a challenge in medical presentations – more so than with what I see in other industries. For example, it’s not unusual for a medical presenter to want four or six very small charts on a slide, with the goal of comparing various studies or compounds at different stages. Therefore, understanding what point the speaker wants to make becomes imperative to the design of the slide. If you can eliminate or at least downplay the extraneous information, you can emphasize what’s important – what the audience should remember.
So, maybe after this four-chart slide, there’s a column chart. Then a line chart, then a pie chart, then a column chart with a trend line. Some have error bars, some don’t. Some slides have two or three or four charts, others have just one. The challenge is making all of these different charts look like a cohesive set, especially when the data varies so greatly. It’s also important to understand what types of charts show what types of data the best so you can advise your clients appropriately.
When you toss in text-heavy slides, it’s important for the presentation developer to understand what’s important and what can be moved into speaker notes or downplayed on the slide. Some text slides work better as tables, especially if the text has lots of numbers and specific data.
And then, of course, there’s always the struggle with where to place references, P-values, and acronym definitions, and it’s not unusual to have a lot of all of those on an individual slide! That extreme amount of “fine print” just isn’t as much of an issue in the presentations I work on for other industries. And finding some of the symbols used in medical presentations can be an adventure, too.
Labels: interview, medicine, powerpoint
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