COMPUTER-GENERATED GRAPHICAL PRESENTATIONS - USE OF MULTIMEDIA TO ENHANCE COMMUNICATION

Personal computers may be used to create, store, and deliver graphical presentations. With computer-generated combinations of the five media (text, images, sound, video, and animation) - that is, multimedia pre sentations-the effectiveness of message delivery can be greatly increa sed. The basic tools are (1) a personal computer; (2) presentation sof tware; and (3) a projector to enlarge the monitor images for audience viewing. Use of this new method has grown rapidly in the business-conf erence world, but has yet to gain widespread acceptance at medical mee tings. We review herein the rationale for multimedia presentations in medicine (vis-a-vis traditional slide shows) as an improved means for increasing audience attention, comprehension, and retention. The evolu tion of multimedia is traced from earliest times to the present. The s teps involved in making a multimedia presentation are summarized, emph asizing advances in technology that bring the new method within practi cal reach of busy physicians. Specific attention is given to software, digital image processing, storage devices, and delivery methods. Our development of a urology multimedia presentation - delivered May 4, 19 96, before the Society for Urology and Engineering and now Internet-ac cessible at http://www.usrf.org - was the impetus for this work. Copyr ight 1997 by Elsevier Science Inc.