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ABSTRACT - This study aimed to ascertain the value of posters at medical meetings to presenters and delegates. The usefulness of posters to presenters at national and international meetings was evaluated by assessing the numbers of delegates visiting them and the reasons why they visited. Memorability of selected posters was assessed and factors influencing their appeal to expert delegates identified. At both the national and international meetings, very few delegates (<5%) visited posters. Only a minority read them and fewer asked useful questions. Recall of content was so poor that it prevented identification of factors improving their memorability. Factors increasing posters' visual appeal included their scientific content, pictures/graphs and limited use of words. Few delegates visit posters and those doing so recall little of their content. To engage their audience, researchers should design visually appealing posters by presenting high quality data in pictures or graphs without an excess of words.
KEY WORDS: information dissemination, medical conferences, medical illustration, posters presentations, publications
Introduction
The purpose of poster presentations is to communicate the results of clinical and scientific research.1 Over the last decade the number of delegates, accepted abstracts and poster presentations at the Digestive Diseases Week (DDW) and British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) meetings has risen.2 However, the value of posters to both presenters and delegates is uncertain. Although supporters of the medium claim that posters facilitate discussion between interested parties,3-5 as a result of previous experiences, it has been hypothesised that the value of poster sessions is overrated, that few delegates attend poster presentations and that their recall of contents is poor. This study aimed to identify features of posters that increase their visual appeal and memorability.
Methods
Three experiments were conducted to assess these hypotheses.
* Experiment 1: Seven researchers presented posters in the plenary (n1) and sessions covering neoplasia (2), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) (2), endoscopy (1) and biliary disease (1) at the BSG meeting in 2001. During the 90- minute poster session a record was made of the number of people attending each poster and whether they glanced at the title, read it, asked a question or were visiting for primarily social reasons. Note was made if any question was useful to the presenter. The presenters were asked to remain...