Out of Class - Hip Pocket Speech - The VivaScope 3000

For my out of class speech I decided to give a technological informative speech to my staff at work.  I chose this venue because the technology I wanted to speak about would be useful to both specialties in the clinic I manage, dermatology and plastic surgery.  My staff is made up of women ages 25 to 58 with a wide range of medical experience and responsibilities in the clinic.  We had front desk personnel, medical assistants, and OR techs.  The technology I chose to inform them about is called VivaScope 3000.  I started out by explaining that it is a new class of imaging technology that enables physicians to review tissue in real time on a cellular level.  The images look much like an ultrasound and the hand held devise can be moved over the lesion or rash in order to view all the cells involved.  The images can be captured and stored so they can be reviewed at a later day and analyzed for changes over time.  I explained that the hand-held microscope, allows the physician to image hard to access areas of the skin such as around the nose, scalp, eyes, and behind the ears.  Lips and gums, hair follicles and pores can also be imaged.  I had slides in my presentation of the devise and the types of lesions it is beneficial in imaging and actual picture of the lesions.  The slides showed pictures of hard to reach areas being targeted by the VivaScope 3000.  I talked about the specs of the compact, portable devise and the capabilities it has as to skin depth and image resolution.  The doctors for both specialties see a great deal of suspicious lesions in clinic and this devise would be helpful in diagnosing lesions without biopsies.  The devise would also be helpful when lesions are excised because the entire lesion and depth could be seen before the first cut is ever made.

I handed out a survey before the presentation which they filled out and returned to me afterwards.  I asked them to score me on the following things; how clearly I spoke, the rate of speech, the presentation being clear and informative, did I explain the new technology in a clear and understandable manner, did I make eye contact with the audience, and was the presentation helpful.  I received good scores on all the above, but could have improved the clarity of the information.(There was a lot of technical information that was confusing.)  I think next time, I would use less technical terms to explain the devise so all can understand.  The best thing that came out of this presentation was a great discussion afterward among the staff.  We discussed how this devise could be used in clinic and what benefits we could see as the possible outcome.  We also discussed other technology on the market and compared the devises to each other.  It was a great discussion and not something we would usually talk about as a staff.  I think it got them thinking about what is out there as far as new medical technology.