Three out of four doctors recommend cartoons to make their presentations more memorable. Is that really true? Well, according to the National Academy of Sciences, “A striking characteristic of human memory is that pictures are remembered better than words.”
And what are cartoons if not pictures? Plus, cartoons entertain your audience. Adding medical cartoons to your presentations helps by:
- Making your presentations more memorable ✓
- Connecting you with your audience ✓
- Entertaining while educating ✓
Medical presentations are challenging to create and deliver. The subject matter is serious and the jargon is dense. The accompanying photos or diagnostic scans are complex. Cartoons, by contrast, are the opposite of that. Inserting them in the right place will serve as a welcome change and help to refocus your audience’s attention.
How You Can Use Cartoons
There are many opportunities for you to use medical cartoons in your presentations. For example, now that medical information (and misinformation!) are both easily available online, it seems that every layperson has a medical opinion. It’s a big source of frustration for the practitioner. Connect with your colleagues about this new reality with this cartoon:
If your topic concerns the practicalities of running a medical practice, you can use cartoons that take the patient’s perspective, like this one:
Making the same point, but with greater visual impact (and set in a hospital emergency room), is this color cartoon:
Health insurance is a topic on everyone’s mind. You can introduce the topic with a cartoon that health providers of all types, as well as patients, can relate to. Here’s one example:
Address complex subjects such as the doctor-patient relationship by way of a sly cartoon that pokes gentle fun at physicians. Here’s a cartoon that makes the point that taking a medical history is perceived differently from the doctor’s and patient’s points of view.
Even a subject as serious as gender bias can be leavened with cartoon humor. Members of your audience will be on your side if you present them with a situation they can relate to.
Patient reluctance can be quickly illustrated with a cartoon like this as a lead-in to statistics:
And don’t forget, sometimes a moment of humor can wake up a sleepy audience:
Any of these cartoons could serve as:
- An introduction to a topic
- A segue between topics
- An ice breaker to warm up your audience
- A concluding image for wrapping up your presentation
With cartoons, you can address challenging subjects on a level that speaks to your audience, entertains them, and wins them over.
