The "powerpoint" or slide enhanced lecture has gotten a bad rap recently as a teaching tool.

But like any tool, you have to know how to use it in order for it to be effective.

In the hands of a skilled user, a lecture can be a powerful way to share knowledge.

So maybe it's time to reimagine the medical lecture.

You need to start by finding your core message. It's the most important thing you want your audience to remember or do as a result of your talk, and should be what you build your presentation around.

For example, if your talk is on stroke perhaps your core message is "identifying stroke mimics before giving tPA is an essential clinical skill".

Here is a resource to learn more about crafting your core message: http://www.speakingaboutpresenting.com/content/memorable-key-message-10-min...

Once you have your core message, then you need to build the journey you want to take your learners on.

If it's teaching the clinical skills required to make sure your patient does not have a stroke mimic, then take them with you on a journey that shows why it's important, and how to do this.

Getting from point A to point B in your journey doesn't have to be boring. Listeners need a reason to be engaged.

A good talk will start with a compelling reason to join in and listen.

To keep our stroke mimic example going, don't start with "I'm going to talk today about distinguishing stroke mimics, instead start with story about a patient who had altered mental status from a drug overdose but got tPA and died from ICH.

Face it, no topic in emergency medicine can be covered in one lecture. So resist the urge to cram information into your talk.

The point is not to read a textbook aloud in under 40 minutes, it's to give your audience a fresh new perspective on a topic, and inspire your listeners to think differently about pursuing the topic in more depth.

The ideal length for an educational video? Six minutes. A podcast? Less than twenty minutes. And so a good EM talk at 40 minutes is pushing it. 30 minutes is probably better.

Remember, once you have your core message, all previous thoughts, notes and parts of the presentation should be easy to classify in terms of how relevant they are, and whether they belong as part of the journey.

Simple doesn't mean simplistic, but it does mean removing clutter and allowing your audience the opportunity join in the journey free from distraction.

This means scrubbing any material that's irrelevant to the core message, getting rid of jargon, and using slides and graphs to convey ideas and information clearly.

The days of slides with multiple bullet points of information are over. For a single idea, use a single slide.

The rule of threes is important. The more we understand the human mind and how it learns the more we realize it is:

1, 2. 3... and I don't remember when it comes to retaining information from a talk.

The big idea is related to your core message. It can be the the same as the core message, but more often is an insight related to your core message. For example:

If your core message is that choosing the wrong antibiotics in the initial treatment of sepsis can be deadly for your patient.

Then big idea might be that easy access to a local resistance antibiogram via mobile device for physicians could save lives.

The end of your presentation isn't the end, merely an opportunity to inspire others to continue the journey.

The "call to action" format of ending a talk gives your listeners an opportunity to take the energy and insight from your presentation and continue the journey.

Your call-to-action should be:
- clear and direct.
- lower barriers to action.
- focus on benefits
- customized for your topic