How I Teach
“How I Teach” is ASH Clinical News’ forum for sharing best practices in teaching hematology
to medical students, residents, and fellows. We invite essays providing insight into teaching
and modeling clinical practice (history-taking, the physical exam, informed consent, giving
bad news), successful research mentoring, disease-specific tips, or more general advice.
Marc J. Kahn, MD, MBA, MACP writes about a new approach to research presentations. Dr.
Kahn is Peterman-Prosser Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean for Student Affairs at
Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans.
FROM POWERPOINT TO
PECHAKUCHA
By Marc J. Kahn, MD, MBA, MACP
How often have you sat in the audience of a presentation
at a medical conference and heard the speaker apologet-
ically mumble, “Sorry, this is a busy slide …” How many
times have you strained your eyes to read paragraphs of
red text on a blue background? How many times have
you squirmed in your chair as someone chose to spend
his or her allotted time reading verbatim from slides?
For anyone who attends educational events with
any regularity, these are all common scenarios – the
unfortunate side effects of a reliance on PowerPoint
presentations. Slideshows are the norm for medical pre-
sentations, but there is another way – a shorter, more
engaging, and more fun way: PechaKucha.
“PechaKucha” is the Japanese term for “chitchat.” As
the name suggests, this presentation style is fast-paced:
20 slides appear on screen for 20 seconds each. The slides
automatically advance after the allotted 20 seconds, so the
time constraint forces speakers to get to the point. The
slides also are light on text, with most presenters opting
for images only. So, an entire talk takes 6 minutes and 40
seconds, followed by a question-and-answer period with
the audience. Several talks, potentially covering a massive
amount of information, can be given in a relatively small
block of time.
This presentation style was devised in 2003 for a
meeting of Tokyo architects. The meeting organizers,
realizing that architects could talk forever on any topic,
devised the PechaKucha format to streamline presenta-
tions into concise, engaging experiences for the audi-
ence – and the presenter.
Within a couple of years, PechaKucha gained trac-
tion in several different professional settings. At the
inaugural trainee-focused
ASH-a-Palooza preceding
the 2018 American Soci-
ety of Hematology Annual
Meeting, organizers in-
cluded PechaKucha–style
“Blood Drops,” talks in
which experts spoke for
5 minutes using 20 slides
that advanced automati-
cally. I also have chaired
PechaKucha sessions at
the American College of
Physicians annual meet-
ing, where it has turned
into a spectator sport –
complete with a gong to
subtly remind speakers
when their time is up.
Practice Makes
PechaKucha Perfect
Audience members love the PechaKucha format because
it is undeniably fun to see if presenters can give a great
presentation within such tight parameters. Speakers
seem to enjoy the format because those same tight pa-
rameters force them to hone their presentation skills
and think about what really matters.
Typically, when we prepare for an hour-long talk,
we open PowerPoint and map out around 60 slides,
following the standard rule of “one slide per minute.”
We write down our talking points and fill out our slide
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templates, and that’s it. Most of us don’t practice them –
why would we, when we have so much information on
our slides?
So, how do you start a PechaKucha presentation?
First, figure out what you want to say. The time con-
straint requires speakers to pare down their talking
points. What information do you want to communicate?
How can you do that with 20 slides that are only visible
for 20 seconds each? If you can’t cover your topic in 6
minutes and 40 seconds, then you need to rethink and
revise accordingly.
Next, storyboard your slides. Unlike the traditional
presentation style in which the slides can supplant your
lecture, the slides in a PechaKucha presentation are on
the screen to enrich your presentation. Each slide con-
tains little text in favor of images. Any text that you do
include should be contained in a succinct bulleted list
that keeps you on track.
When selecting images, you want to pick something
that you could not adequately describe with text – a
graph, a pathology image, a blood smear, etc. For exam-
ple, my Blood Drop talk at ASH-a-Palooza covered the
value of getting a degree in addition to your MD. When
May 2019