The Skill of Scientific Storytelling

Author: Lydia Rebello, PharmD

Views are my own and do not reflect my employer.

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If you’ve ever spent hours preparing for a journal club or presentation and still felt like it didn’t really land, you’re not alone. Pharmacy school teaches us a lot of content, but not always how to make it stick. That’s where training and the skill of scientific storytelling come in.

Scientific storytelling isn’t just explaining or presenting data; it’s designing communication so someone can understand, apply, and actually do something differently afterward. It’s the difference between merely sharing data and creating a story out of data to make an impact on your audience. If you shift your mindset, this will transform your scientific presentations into more meaningful opportunities for your audience, and you'll stand out from your peers, no matter where you are in your pharmacy career.

Start with Outcomes, Then Build the Story

• Ask: What should my audience be able to do after this? (expand on learning objectives and create "action objectives", e.g., apply data to a patient, interpret results with confidence)

• Structure your core message like a clear, logical narrative: clinical problem → study question → results → what it means → what to do next.

Make Your Content Stick Through Relevance and Application

• Anchor your content in real-world relevance (e.g. start with a patient case or an engaging video, use interactive polling, or pause for thoughtful discussion questions).

• Include background information to ensure everyone in your audience has a shared baseline of knowledge. Define all acronyms.

• Focus on clarity over volume.

  → One key message per slide, highlight only the most important findings

  → Use visuals instead of dense text where applicable (and use animations to build out complex concepts)

  → Use relatable analogies or metaphors to walk your audience through new ideas.

  → Repeat your key takeaways and “so what” throughout your slides, not just at the end

Improve Your Impact Over Time

• If appropriate, proactively ask for specific feedback through questions, such as "What section was the most applicable to your work?” "What was unclear?” "What confused you the most?" Use this feedback to improve your clarity and impact for your next presentation.

• If you are unable to answer audience questions, use your best judgment and feel free to follow-up afterwards.

This is not an exhaustive list of everything that makes a presentation effective. Follow up afterward, you can incorporate it into your next presentation, and keep refining as you go.

The key takeaway: the earlier you adapt this mindset, the more impactful and effective you will be as a scientific communicator. Be the speaker that people look forward to!