In our seventh newsletter for healthcare economists we tackle the thorny issues of giving a speech – and presenting the graphics that often accompany it – and the equally prickly one of dealing effectively with a media interview. Ruth Murray outlines the pros and cons of e-publishing, and Clare Gurton gives you hints on dispelling butterflies. Also this month HOC offers a new service – we list some of the meetings whose abstract submission deadlines are approaching. And for a little light relief, we give you a spelling test.

How to ensure your audience
enjoys your presentation

“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.”
Samuel Johnson, 1709–1784

HOC is now available for print in pdf format – free

How to avoid getting kicked by the media donkey

by David Woods, HOC editor

In the June issue of HOC, we made the point that health economists should step out of their “health economics shell” to convey research findings to the public through the media. That said, reaching out to the media can prove to be no easy task. This article, adapted from a chapter by David Woods in his book Communication for Doctors: How to Improve Patient Care and Minimize Legal Risks*, provides some practical advice for successfully crossing the great divide between professionals and the public media.

Being prepared for the media interview will save health economists embarrassment and reverberations after the fact. Health economists can avoid being kicked by the media donkey if they understand this creature and learn how to treat it with firmness and respect. First of all, remember that the donkey thinks it is a thoroughbred race horse and wants everyone to admire it for its fine breeding, configuration and form. The media wants to attract the attention of readers, listeners, and advertisers. Understanding that will help you get through the interview process unscathed. Increasingly, reporters from the ranks of both print and electronic journalism are seeking out experts to comment on aspects of healthcare.

How to remain unscathed:

• Be prepared. Nothing causes readers to turn the page and listeners and viewers to switch stations than dry rambling responses. You are, after all, the expert. But being the expert isn’t enough. Attention spans are contracting while sources of information are expanding. So you should have a very clear idea in advance of the interview of the message you want to convey.
• Be wary. Ill considered off-the-cuff remarks can be ruinous. Keep in mind the absolute finality of the printed or broadcast word. Don’t be like the physician who mused on air about the desirability of sterilising all welfare mothers with two or more children. He lived to regret the comment for the rest of his rather foreshortened career in medical politics. Wariness should extend to realising that the donkey doesn’t only kick defensively – it may do so pre-emptively or even capriciously.
• Be clear. Remember that the educational levels of those to whom your message is beamed differ, unless you are being interviewed in a scientific journal. So no polysyllabic words, arcane references, or medical jargon.
• Be patient. Interviewers serve as intermediaries between the expert and the audience. They need your help and understanding in order to interpret and present facts.
• Be humble. If you don’t know the answer, admit it. It is far better to acknowledge ignorance cheerfully and openly than to prove it by hedging and waffling.
• Be cool. Aggressive interviewers or those with particular axes to grind should not be allowed to wear you down, nor should those who pose the same question in several different ways. Say something like “A more useful question might be xx” rather than “That’s a really silly question”.

To avoid the media donkey’s kick, understand the creature, be firm, make your intent clear, be confident but wary, and humble enough to know that it is bigger than you.

*Communication for Doctors: How to Improve Patient Care and Minimize Legal Risks, by David Woods, Radcliffe Medical Press, 2004.

Using PowerPoint effectively

by David Woods

While I’m not among those, such as that august journal The Lancet, who believe that PowerPoint corrupts and absolute PowerPoint corrupts absolutely, I do think that far too many presentations using that technique actually misuse it – and abuse audiences in the process.

The Lancet went as far as to invite its readers “to imagine a world with almost no pronouns or punctuation. A world where any complex thought has to be broken down into seven-word chunks … and where it’s hard to accommodate full English sentences so that meaning may be obscured.”

In his wonderfully capricious website, Edward Tufte (www.edwardtufte.com) goes a step further by rendering the Gettysburg Address, one of the most graceful pieces of expository prose in the English language, in PowerPoint with depressingly Bowdlerian results.

According to Andy Goodman, author of Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes, “More and more presentations include meaningless numbers, acronyms that nobody recognises, and unintelligible sentence fragments.” Not only that, but I have witnessed myriad occasions when speakers freeze at the lectern when their technology refuses to function.

But it doesn’t have to be like that. Here are some pointers for using PowerPoint powerfully:

• Put only enough information on each graphic to clarify one major idea.
• Make sure that information is clearly discernible in the back row of your conference room.
• Use graphics only where they help you to explain your point.
• Avoid using tables and graphs from published articles as they don’t usually lend themselves to PowerPoint.
• Make sure that the data are accurate, legible, comprehensible, interesting, and memorable.
• Keep it simple; some of the graphics I’ve seen look like train timetables.
• Give the audience time to absorb what’s on the graphic presentation.
• Don’t simply read from the graphic; it should serve as a trigger for your talking points.
• Finally, do a dry run, to see that everything’s audible, visible, and meaningful.

“You write with ease to show your breeding,
But easy writing’s vile hard reading.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 1751–1816

The pros and cons of e-publishing

By Ruth Murray

As recently as 1990 the World Wide Web did not exist, and email was still difficult to use. Even the most optimistic
experts could hardly foresee how rapidly the technology and the software would advance. Electronic publishing, or e-publishing, uses the internet to deliver scientific articles and other content to readers.

But e-publications are not just electronic versions of paper publications – they can be designed solely and specifically for electronic dissemination. Because the technology allows publishers to get information to readers quickly and efficiently, it is causing major changes to the publishing industry, and even has an impact on the way we read.

Pros:

• Open access
• Rapid publication
• Lower costs
• High visibility and international readership
• Links to articles referenced and later articles that cite the paper
• Unlimited space for figures, extensive data and even video footage
• May reduce publication bias
• Articles can be widely promoted on websites and by email alerts, etc.

Cons:

• Perceived lack of credibility compared with paper publications, although this is rapidly changing
• Some e-publication houses do not have an adequate peer review process
• Archiving – will these e-publications still be around years from now or will they be lost forever?

Is the end in sight for paper publications? We’re only just beginning to see the effects of e-publishing, and the advantages seem so far to outweigh the disadvantages.

Feel the fear and speak anyway

by Clare Gurton

The best way to overcome fear of public speaking is to be afraid and speak anyway. As silly as this may seem, it is an important and reliable way to gain confidence. Pushing through fear is often much less frightening than living with the underlying fear that comes from a feeling of helplessness.

The goal of public speaking is to give your audience something of value. If they get something they need, they will consider you a success. If they feel happy or entertained, they will consider their time with you worthwhile, and even if you stir them up, to ultimately benefit them, they will still appreciate you. But, in a large group of people, there will be a diversity of opinions, judgements and reactions; you cannot hope to please everyone.

Here are some suggestions to help you – and your audience:

• Get rid of any negative anticipation and visualise yourself giving the talk the way you want to. If you anticipate success, you are more likely to achieve it. By visualising this way, you are programming your mind and body for the results you want.
• Prepare positively, stop worrying about yourself and get excited about your subject.
• Look your best – when you look good, you feel confident.
• Assume that the audience is friendly and that they are there because they are interested in what you have to say – and know that you’re qualified to speak on the subject.
• Remember, all good speakers probably started out as not-so-good speakers; they improved because they resolved to do better the next time.
• Get a good night's sleep before your presentation.
• Eat lightly, or not at all, one hour before speaking – a full stomach can lower your energy level and concentration.
• If you are experiencing butterflies just before you are due to speak, try to find a quiet space and breathe deeply, opening your lungs fully and slowly. Or, as one expert put it, get the butterflies to fly in formation.

Good luck!

Abstract submission deadlines

Over the next few months HOC will bring you dates for meeting abstract submissions, (please note that dates were correct at time of sending this email; HOC cannot be responsible for any amendments).

Commonly misspelled words

We all know the spelling of English is erratic, illogical, and difficult. So which of these words are misspelled?

• barbituates
• callus
• foreward
• liquify
• preceed
• pruritis

Barbiturates
If this word is mispronounced "barbituates," it's no wonder it's also misspelled. The second r should also be sounded.

Callus
The noun callus is to be differentiated from callous, the adjective.
The calluses on the champion's hands came from years of playing golf without gloves.
Sociopaths are characterised by their callous attitude toward other people.

Foreword
There is either forward or foreword. There is no English word spelled "foreward."
Forward is the antonym of backward. The foreword to a book is literally "the word before".

Liquefy
In the entire English language, there are only four words that end in -efy: liquefy, putrefy, rarefy, and stupefy. All the other words that have that pronunciation end in -ify.

Precede, proceed, supersede
There are only three words in all of English with that sound and in this class that end in -ceed: exceed, proceed, and succeed. There is only one word that ends in -sede: supersede. All others end in -cede, including accede, concede, recede, and secede.

Pruritus
Inexperienced people assume that all medical words ending with that pronunciation are spelled -itis. Pruritus is one of many exceptions.
Pruritus is pure Latin, from prurire, to itch.

Thanks to Edith Schwager, author of Medical English Usage and Abusage (Greenwood Publishing Group/Oryx Press).

Look forward to Writing grant proposals , Improving efficiency by maximising your time, and Clinical trials – 10 mega mistakes in statistical analysis.