Royce Chen, MD, shares highlights from his recent session for young ophthalmologists who attended APAO 2018, Feb. 8 to 11 in Hong Kong.
When submitting a surgical video, keep your objectives and audience in mind. Are you trying to describe a new technique? Are you showing a particularly interesting complication? To be successful, you need to empathize with the reviewers.
- They have a finite amount of time to look over many different submissions.
- They get bored easily because everything starts looking the same.
- Errors and bad video quality will annoy them.
- Something unique and different will pique their attention.
The Bad (The 4 Bs)
These are some of the key characteristics of bad videos. Avoid:
- Boring content.
- Bad quality: This can include low resolution or being out of focus or not centered.
- Boasting: Calling a technique novel when it is actually not or performing a novel technique poorly or worse than the standard technique.
- Bloated: Too much extra content that doesn’t contribute to the point of the video.
The Good (The 5 Ss)
The best way to avoid making a bad video is to aim for the following five characteristics of a good video.
- Stunning: Great video and audio quality and overall production.
- Sounds good: Narrated well and contains good music.
- Skillful: Outstanding surgical technique.
- Short: Well edited without any excess fat.
- Special: Memorable with a unique angle.
If you can avoid the bad and stick to the good, you will create a high-quality video.
Final Pearls
- Start with good content.
- Record as much as you can — you never know when an interesting moment may occur.
- EDIT! Crop the video and cut out all the filler.
- Narrate loudly and clearly.
- Use text strategically in the video to guide the viewers.
- Watch a lot of videos and see for yourself what makes a good video.
- Make it memorable.
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About the author: Royce Chen, MD, is an assistant professor of ophthalmology and the residency program director at the Edward S. Harkness Eye Institute of the Columbia University Medical Center.