Wide Open Spaces: The 2001 Annual Meeting for Biocommunications - Conference Summary

Sponsors

This meeting is being held jointly by the following three associations:

Association of Biomedical Communications Directors

Health Sciences Communications Association

Conference Summary: Monday June 25, 2001

Pre-Dawn Adventure

Workshops

- Management - Best Practices in Customer Satisfaction
- Adding Impact to PowerPoint Presentations
- Streaming Media: The New Broadcast Paradigm

Concurrent C - Streaming Opportunity (Monday, 6/25 at 1:00 - 5:00)

- Expanding the Web’s Boundaries: The Streaming Opportunity

- Internet Streaming Essentials: Shooting and Designing Video for the Web

- Tin Cans, String and Cardboard Boxes: Video Architectures and Codecs

- Video Streaming - An Added Value Benefit to an In-house Web Team

- Integrating On-demand Streaming into a Web Site for Physicians
- Lessons in Process and Production: A Website for Shared Medical Decision Making

Concurrent D - Digital Photography -

Learning and Working with the New Medium

(Monday, 6/25 at 1:00pm - 5:00pm)

- Using Digital in the Operating Room

- Digital Photography for Medical Documentation in Honduras 2000
- Applied Digital Photography, One Pixel at a Time

- The New Blue Diazo

Off Site Social Event: An Evening at the Circle R Ranch

Return to main Conference Summary Page

Pre-Dawn Adventure

Photos not yet available.

8am-12pm

#8 Management - Best Practices in Customer Satisfaction - Logan Ludwig, Ph.D, Jim Barrett, Ed.D

This workshop will examine the ten best practices essential to customer satisfaction: 1) commitment and vision, 2) translating the vision, 3) employee selection, 4) service assessment, 5) performance management, 6) recognition and rewards, 7) education and training, 8) seamless service, 9) physical ambiance, and 10) service recovery.

Logan Ludwig has over 30 years experience as a senior staff manager, has authored articles on customer service and evaluation, presented dozens of talks and workshops on performance management, and has served as an elected officer in several associations including both HeSCA and ABCD president.

Jim Barrett has over 30 years experience in directly providing and managing customer support services. He leads a self-supporting department that has grown and survives on its reputation for service. He has done all that other stuff Logan has done also, but it has not made him a dean yet.

return to top of page

8am-12pm

#9 Adding Impact to PowerPoint Presentations - Steve Pendry

This workshop will present several examples of biomedical subject matter that have been visualized more effectively using PowerPoint. Many of them are based on aging, static images that were submitted to provide a starting point for improvement. Several of PowerPoint’s image creation features will then be explored in detail, providing an array of tools that can be applied to design problems without the need to invest in any design software beyond PowerPoint itself.

Steve Pendry is Manager of Biomedical Communications at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa since 1977 -- and on the ISU BMC staff since 1973. Steve is actively involved in graphic design, photography, video production, presentation technology, computer training, and endless browsing on the Web.

Monday, June 25, 2001

8am-12pm

#10 Streaming Video: The New Broadcast Paradigm -

Ben Waggoner

This workshop will demonstrate techniques to use when creating successful streaming video. It will define the interactive streaming workflow on the Internet, demonstrate how to optimize Internet video content for the strengths of QuickTime, RealSystem and Windows Media players for both on-demand and live streaming using Cleaner 5. Emphasis will be placed on key production strategies that accelerate the streaming media process while preserving quality. Finally, we will address when to do it yourself, when to outsource encoding and hosting, and how to best use a third part services provider.

Ben Waggoner runs Interframe Media, a digital video consultancy. As one of the industry's leading streaming media experts, he works with enterprises to develop and deploy digital video production methodologies, systems, and products. Widely recognized as a streaming media authority, Ben is a regular contributor to industry publications and a speaker at events including DVExpo and NAB. He is the world's greatest compressionist.

Summary not yet available

1:30 pm - Monday, June 25, 2001

Concurrent C - Streaming Opportunity

Arlyn Bonfield, Moderator

Expanding the Web’s Boundaries: The Streaming Opportunity
Ben Waggoner

With the rapid adoption of technologies like Flash, Shockwave and Java, Web designers are hungry for tools that enable them to produce better, more effective sites. It’s no secret that video and audio are extremely effective ways to communicate. Now the combination of video and audio with the Internet is creating a whole new communications medium that promises to have a profound impact on biocommunications. This session will highlight the trends that are shaping the future of the Internet and show you why streaming media will play a critical part in your Internet efforts. It will provide valuable advice on establishing appropriate goals for a
successful streaming program given today’s technology with an insider’s look towards the direction streaming media is likely to take during the next few years.

Internet Streaming Essentials: Shooting and Designing Video for the Web
Ben Waggoner

The new streaming capabilities of the Web present media producers with exciting possibilities, but some real production challenges. How is producing video for the Web different from producing it for traditional distribution? In this presentation learn to shoot, design and format video effectively for streaming. Learn the language of the streaming production workflow, the terms, the formats and standards, but especially why they matter. The presenter will offer tips on image acquisition, editing and design techniques to produce reliable streaming files quickly and easily, even for the first time.

Tin Cans, String and Cardboard Boxes: Video Architectures and Codecs
JK Stringer
Telemedicine Technical Manager,
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA

How do you wrestle the zeros and ones of digital video out of a swimming pool of data and through the distribution straw? Compression is the funnel that allows video to be streamed over the Internet, pressed into a CD-ROM or DVD, and shown by your digital cable provider. From streaming to flooding, we’ll look briefly at the compression formats available to today’s digital video producer.

Video Streaming - An Added Value Benefit to an In-house Web Team
Richard Williams
Director, VAS Communications,
Arizona Heart Institute, Phoenix, AZ

This presentation will discuss the rational for establishing an in-house web development team with the capability of live and archived televised events through video streaming. Emphasis will be placed on: goals and objectives, design and cost of the web team, design and cost of video streaming, program monitoring, measurement and evaluation of video streaming. Session participants should develop an awareness and appreciation for the advantages of an in-house web development team; become knowledgeable of the strength and weakness of in-house video streaming; and recognize departmental budget impact on institutional finances.

Integrating On-demand Streaming into a Web Site for Physicians
Arlyn Bonfield
Biomedical Video and Multimedia, Sharon, MA

Like in all media, content rules on the web. Physicians are particularly pressed for time and if the media they are offered isn’t strong on content, appealing to view, dynamic and digestible, they are not likely to return for more. Video and audio can enrich the content offered on a web site but it must be integrated in a way that enhances the value of the content, rather than being used just for window dressing. This presentation will discuss our experience developing a news, information and educational web site for physicians and how on-demand media streams fit into the equation.

Lessons in Process and Production: A Website for Shared Medical Decision Making
Tom Kidder
Producer-Writer, Media Services,
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Media Services is in the process of creating a comprehensive patient education web site for a medical decision making foundation and a for-profit insurer. The goal is to help people make decisions about their health care by selecting questions that represent decision points in their care. The program presents the user with audio narration, text, and graphics that give pertinent information about the condition and the options for treatment. This presentation will outline how a variety of products (Media Cleaner Pro, Photo Shop, and Real Media) were used to develop the site using video frame grabs, illustration, and audio processing, and how we reformatted a previously produced video into this web site. The presenter will talk about the process and the lessons learned in determining which types of media to use for patient web sites.

return to top of page

1:30 pm - Monday, June 25, 2001

Concurrent D - Digital Photography - Learning and Working with the New Medium

David Davolt, Moderator

Digital Photography for Medical Documentation in Honduras 2000
David A. Davolt, Sr., CHT

Director of Biomedical Imaging
Nix Hospital Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine Center

A small group of physicians with differing specialties gathered to provide a vast array of surgical and medical care to residents of Santa Rosa de Copan and the Western areas of Honduras. Since 1982 the “South Texas Physician Outreach” organization has made several trips to Honduras and have flown many children and adult patients to Texas for surgeries that could not be performed in Honduras. Typically, the team is composed of 25-30 people.

I provided Photographic support the previous two years using film technology (1998) and a combination of film and digital technology (1999). As the team photographer my primary responsibility is to document the sequence of the patients’ care throughout their treatment. In 1998 nearly 100 rolls of film were exposed during the trip and in 1999 nearly 2,000 digital images were exposed while still carried a film system as back up. On the 2000 trip over 2,000 digital images were exposed using only digital equipment. This paper will discuss trip itinerary, the team make up and activities, the equipment used, and the attempt to send information back to the BCA web site.

David A. Davolt began his medical photography career in 1974, in the US Air Force, when the need arose to document the progress of wounds of patient that were undergoing Hyperbaric Therapy. He is a Certified Hyperbaric Technologist and has authored or co-authored over forty published professional and scientific papers. His photographs are published throughout the hyperbaric and radiation oncology literature. He is currently the Director of Biomedical Imaging at the Nix Hospital Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine Center managing the photographic functions of two treatment facilities and is the Unit Manager of the Nix Hospital Southwest Wound Care Center. He has been a member of the BioCommunications Association for fifteen years and has held a number of positions in the organization at both the Chapter and International levels. Currently he is the Clerk of the House of Delegates, and serves on the Board of Governors of the BCA.

Applied Digital Photography, One Pixel at a Time

Gordon Brown

In this program, Gordon will lay the framework for a better understanding of the Digital Photographic System using a MS PowerPoint program and a digital projector. Because digital photography is relatively new, many misconceptions have arisen which can cloud one’s

thinking, and lead them to making the wrong decisions regarding their photographic tasks.

Since the fast-moving pace of the digital imaging world is difficult to keep up with, this program is constantly being updated to make it as current as possible. Gordon will explain the major concepts you need to know to make excellent digital images. He will also explain, in depth, how digital images are formed, in advanced amateur and professional digital cameras. To help lead to a better understanding of the digital system, particular

attention will be paid to the following concepts:

1. Scientific uses of digital photography

2. Authentication software

3. Archiving images

4. Camera exposure sequence

5. Digital shutter lag

6. Digital zooms

7. Scanners

8. Interline and Full Frame CCD imagers

9. CFA interpolation

10. Color aliasing

11. Sensor "noise"

12. In-camera Image enhancement

13. Exposure latitude

14. Color reproduction

15. DPI vs. PPI

16. Service bureaus

Gordon Brown is a consultant for the Digital and Applied Imaging Division of Eastman Kodak and has been producing PowerPoint presentations for Kodak for more than ten years.

More about Gordon Brown here!

The New Blue Diazo

Gabriel G. Unda

The PowerPoint presentation has become as ubiquitous as the blue diazo of old. Beyond the usual uses of PowerPoint as a creator of slides and electronic slide shows, its true strength lies in its ability to act as a container for digital media. This presentation explores the abilities of PowerPoint to emulate many forms of media including motion media, multi-image and virtual-reality. It also explores options for delivering the content created in PowerPoint, in forms that allow it to break free of platform specific constraints.

Gabriel Unda is Principal Photographer at the University of California at Davis. In this role he has guided the shift to digital photography and currently oversees the day-to-day operations of digital imaging. He has been speaking on the marriage of computers and photography for the past fifteen years.

return to top of page

Off-Site Social Event: An Evening at the Circle R Ranch

return to top of page