Scientific Storytelling Expert Blog

VISUALSTORYTELLING

Everyone employed in marketing, medical affairs, learning, and training encounters the challenges of communicating complex, scientific material in a clear and accessible manner. This expert blog contains advice and best practices for presenting scientific information to your target audience, from pedagogy to design, technical specs to usability, timelines to costs and everything in between.

Understanding the concept of an anti-tumor vaccine

July 6, 2020/in Slide decks /by Anita Kunert

In today’s episode of our series “How to make complex medical science accessible”, we will show how we turned a complex immunological cascade set off by an anti-tumor vaccine into an easily understandable step-by-step sequence in PowerPoint.

How to build better slide decks

June 17, 2020/in Slide decks /by Thomas Frei

Today we explore the simple, practical, concrete steps you can take to develop more effective and engaging slide decks for scientific communication.

Stress response physiology

April 23, 2020/in Slide decks /by Stefan Wolf

In today’s episode of our series “How to make complex medical science accessible,” we would like to use an example to show how to turn a complex slide about physiological processes in the human brain into an easily understandable animation sequence in PowerPoint.

Escape Mechanisms Slide Deck

February 24, 2020/in Slide decks /by Stefan Wolf

Today we will look at how to get the most out of scientific slide decks in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Over the past 20 years we have seen scientific slide decks almost every day.

How to effectively retain knowledge

October 9, 2019/in Learning and Training /by Katrin Rudolf, PhD

It happens. Mixing up terms, stumbling over complicated phrases, or forgetting key information. Whether working in sales or medical affairs, it can be tough to remember all the details. The cost of forgetting can mean not being taken seriously by peers or even damaging relationships with KOLs. Read more

Reinforcement training tools: How to develop transferable knowledge

August 7, 2019/in Learning and Training /by Katrin Rudolf, PhD

Learning is not a singular event. It’s a journey. A crucial part of this journey is developing transferable knowledge that lets us apply what we’ve learned in many different contexts.

Learning facts, concepts, and terminology is the first step towards developing transferable knowledge. When taking this first step, learners may face these three challenges: Read more

Engaging eLearning tools with a fresh editorial design

September 28, 2018/in Learning and Training /by Julia Imkampe, PhD

Every day, employees working in medical affairs use high-quality apps and read interactive digital publications with a sleek and clean design. They do all of this after they get home from work. And the next day the same employees go to work and sit in front of boring slides to learn information crucial for their profession. How design can engage or derail an eLearning. Read more

How to create an effective learning and development program for medical affairs–part 2

February 15, 2018/in Learning and Training /by Anja Kloss, PhD

An interview with Thomas Frei, executive creative director at CAST PHARMA

This is the second part of an interview with Thomas Frei, executive creative director of CAST PHARMA, offering insights into the learning and development (L&D) philosophy of CAST PHARMA. Read more

How to create an effective learning and development program for medical affairs–part 1

February 14, 2018/in Learning and Training /by Anja Kloss, PhD

An interview with Thomas Frei, executive creative director at CAST PHARMA

Learning and development (L&D) is something that accompanies you throughout your entire life. Learning for your career does not end with graduation or an academic degree. Read more

Sharpening the message of key study results

January 23, 2018/in Slide decks, 90 seconds, Interactive Tools /by Stefan Wolf

To differentiate their product from the competition, communicating the results of scientific studies is crucial for pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Their MSLs need effective tools in order to be able to engage health care professionals in a meaningful dialogue. Read more

Don’t overload your learners: Getting rid of redundant explanations of visuals in eLearning tools

December 18, 2017/in Learning and Training /by Julia Imkampe, PhD

Creating eLearning tools for medical affairs is a complex project. The scientific content needs to be carefully compiled and organized, and different theories about learning need to be considered in order to design a didactic concept. Read more

How a clear structure helps to achieve a precise comparison

August 11, 2020/in Slide decks /by Anita Kunert

Today’s slide compares two carbohydrate structures used to formulate iron-replacement therapies. The original slide gives a lot of information on the differences between the two structures and what that means, but there is no clear graphic structure showing a comparison.
Read more