proceedings
in Intensive Care
Papers, posters, presentations:
communicating the biomedical sciences
HSR Proceedings in Intensive Care and Cardiovascular Anesthesia 2010; 3: 233-234
When a question becomes a nightmare:
surviving the most difficult part
of your presentation
M. John
Professor of Applied English, Faculty of Medicine, Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele Milan, Italy
Many presenters, even those who have
been speaking in public for years, consider
question time to be the trickiest and most
difficult moment of their talk. You, the pre-
senter, will have prepared your slides care-
fully and you should also have carried out
endless, scrupulous rehearsals in order
to deliver your data in an interesting and
entertaining manner. However, you can’t
control your audience and you never really
know what questions they might ask.
Well, this is not exactly true as a good pre-
senter will generally be able to predict the
main questions that will be asked. Indeed, a
very good presenter will anticipate the audi-
ence’s main queries and give the answers
during the talk itself, thus avoiding time
wasting during the question-and-answer
(Q+A) session.
So, why panic? Non-native English speak-
ers are, as a rule, not terrified of the ques-
tions, however complex and difficult they
might be, but of the questioners! Or, maybe
I should say, they are afraid of not being
able to understand the questioners’ Eng-
lish. This can be embarrassing, and ask-
ing someone to endlessly repeat a question
is not at all good style. Maybe you can get
around the problem by behaving like a poli-
Corresponding author:
Prof. Michael John
Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy
Via Olgettina, 48 - 20132 Milan, Italy
e.mail: michael.john@hsr.it
HSR Proceedings in Intensive Care and Cardiovascular Anesthesia 2010, Vol. 2
Cardiovascular Anesthesia
Endorsed by
233
tician and re-formulating the question so
that in the end you answer the question you
wanted to be asked.
However, we all know that the Q+A ses-
sion provides you, the presenter, with some
important feedback. To begin with, from
their questions you realise what the audi-
ence has or has not understood. A vibrant
Q+A session means contact and interac-
tion, whereas a limp one can cause seri-
ous harm to your talk. Remember that the
Q+A session is still a part of your perfor-
mance and you will be judged on how you
deal with questions and not merely on your
data and the content of your slides. An-
swers have to be concise, precise, well artic-
ulated, convincing and, hopefully, correct.
When facing the Q+A session, bear the
following points in mind:
• Leave nothing to chance: be prepared for
any possible question
• Always be positive and honest with the au-
dience
• Remember to answer all questions, even
those you might have ‘on hold’
• Always listen to the complete question
• Make sure the whole audience has heard
the question, maybe by repeating it your-
self
• Keep eye contact with the questioner while
answering, but also involve the rest of the
audience so as to avoid a ‘private conver-
sation’
• Remember: there are NO stupid questions
 M. John

234 Let’s now have a closer look at some useful
phrases that will help you manage a posi-
tive Q+A session.
1. Stimulating the audience for ques-
tions
What questions do you have?
I’ll be happy to answer your questions.
Are there any more questions?
2. Thanking the questioner
Thanks for bringing this up.
You have just raised a very important
point.
Thank you for this interesting question.
3. Agreeing with the questioner
You are exactly right!
I totally agree with you.
That’s quite true!
4. Disagreeing with the questioner
I would question this assertion…
I take a different view…
I feel you have not fully understood…
5. Doubts
That remains to be seen…
We do not have sufficient data at present…
This is still under discussion…
6. Answering multiple questions
The answer to your first question is…
Now, let’s move on to your next question…
Let me answer your final question first…
7. You have no answer to the question
I can’t honestly answer this question off
the top of my head…
I would like to put this question off until
later…
Your question is outside the scope of my
presentation. Maybe we can discuss it
during the coffee break.
Oh, just one last thing. Everyone appreci-
ates honesty.
If you really do not know the answer to a
question, then never go beating around the
bush to try and pull off some kind of magic
trick in order to impress your audience.
They will be far more impressed if you sim-
ply say, ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t know the an-
swer to that one.
I’ll get back to you (via e-mail) when I have
sufficient data’. Now that is really impres-
sive!

“Questo è il settimo di una serie di articoli sull’argomento.

Potete indirizzare domande (in italiano o in inglese) a michael.john@hsr.it e vedrete le
risposte pubblicate su questa rubrica”.

‘This is the seventh of a series of articles on this topic.

Send any questions to michael.john@hsr.it who will answer them as part of this column’

HSR Proceedings in Intensive Care and Cardiovascular Anesthesia 2010, Vol. 2


Calendar for future meetings
Intensive Care, Surgery and Cardiovascular Anesthesia
2010
September 30 – October 2. 2 International Meeting on Aortic Dis-
nd
eases. Liege, Belgium. For information, contact: Department of
Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery CHU Liege, 4000 Liege, Bel-
gium. Email: cardiovasc@chu.ulg.ac.be, Website www.chuliege.
imaa.be
October 2-5. Australian Society of Anaesthetists 69th National Scien-
tific Congress Melbourne 2010. Melbourne, Australia. For infor-
mation: www.asa2010.com
October 9-13. 23rd Annual Congress European Society of Intensive
Care Medicine. Barcelona, Spain. For information, contact: ES-
ICM, 40 Avenue Joseph Wybran, 1070 Brussels, Belgium. E-mail:
barcelona2010@esicm.org
October 16-20. American Society of Anesthesiologists Annual Meet-
ing. San Diego, CA. For information, contact: ASA, 520 N. North-
west Highway, Park Ridge, IL 60068, Website: www.ASAhq.org
October 21-22. 21st Century Tratment of Heart Failure. Cleveland,
Ohio. For information: www.aats.org
November 17-19. 12th CARACT (Cardiothoracic Anesthesia and In-
tensive Care). Pisa, Italy. For information contact, E-mail: info@
easycongress.net, Website: www.easycongress.net
December 10-14. Sixty-fourth Postgraduate Assembly, New York
State Society of Anesthesiologists. New York, NY. For informa-
tion, contact: NYSSA, 85 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10003. E-
mail: hq@nyssa-pga.org
December 17-18. 4th International Congress: Aortic Surgery and An-
esthesia “How to do it”. Milano, Italy. For information, contact:
S. Grassi, San Raffaela Congress Centre, Via Olgettina 58 20132
Milano, Italy. E-mail: info@aorticsurgery.it; Website: www.aortic-
surgery.it
2011
January 12-15. Annual Meeting Society for Technology in Anes-
thesia. Las Vegas, Nevada. For information, contact: Society For
Technology in Anesthesia, 6737 W. Washington Street, Suite
1300, Milwaukee, WI 53214. Email: STAhq@anestech.org
January 16-21. 29th Annual Symposium: Clinical Update in Anesthe-
siology, Surgery and Perioperative Medicine with International
Faculty and Industrial Exhibits. St. Martin, French West Indies.
For information, contact: Helen Phillips, The Mount Sinai School
of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1010, New York, NY
10029. E-mail: helen.phillips@mountsinai.org
January 31 – February 2. 47th Annual Meeting Society of Thoracic
Surgeons. San Diego, CA. For information, contact: Email: sts@
sts.org
February 10-13. 11th Annual International Symposium on Congeni-
tal Heart Disease. St. Petersburg, Florida. For information: www.
aats.org
February 13-16. 40th Annual Meeting of the German Society for
Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. Stuttgart, Germany. For
information, contact: Executive Secretary GSTCVS Langerbeck-
Virchou Haus Luisenstr 58/59, 10117 Berlin, Germany. Email:
secretariat@dgthg.de
HSR Proceedings in Intensive Care and Cardiovascular Anesthesia welcomes announcements of interest to physicians, re-
searchers and others concerned with cardiothoracic and vascular anesthesiology, medicine, pharmacology and related areas.
All copies are reviewed and edited for style, clarity and length. Information should be addressed to: George Silvay, M.D.,
Ph.D., Editor, Professor of Anesthesiology, Department of Anesthesiology, Mount Sinai Medical Center, 1 Gustave L. Levy
Place, Box 1010, New York, NY USA 10029-6574. E-mail: george.silvay@mountsinai.org
proceedings
in Intensive Care
Cardiovascular Anesthesia
FUTURE EVENTS
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235
February 24-27. International Conference on Pre-Hypertension and
Cardio Metabolic Syndrome. Vienna, Austria. For information,
contact: Paragon Conventions, 18 Avenue Louis – Casai, 1209 Ge-
neva, Switzerland. E-mail: marketing@prehypertension.org
March 22-25. 31st International Symposium on Intensive Care and
Emergency Medicine. Brussels, Belgium. For information, contact:
Eramus University Hospital, Route de lennik 808, B-1070 Brus-
sels, Belgium, E-mail: veronique.de.ulaemich@nlb.ac.be, Website:
www.intensive.org
March 31 – April 2. 3rd World Congress of Total Intravenous Anes-
thesia. Singapore. For information: www.kenes.com/tivia-tci
April 29 – May 1. 6th World Congress of Pain. Seoul, Korea. For in-
formation, contact Kenes Int. 1-3, Rue de Chantepoulet, Ch-1211
Geneva, Switzerland
April 29-May 4. 33rd Annual Meeting and Workshops Society of the
Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists. Savannah, GA. For informa-
tion, contact: SCA, PO Box 11086, 2209 Dickens Road, Richmond,
VA 23230. Website: www.scahq.org
May 7-11. American Association of Thoracic Surgeons. 91st Annual
Meeting. Philadelphia, PA. For information: www.aats.org
May 11-15. 58th Annual Meeting Association of University Anesthe-
siologists. Philadelphia, PA. For information, contact: AUA, 520
N. Northwest Highway, Park Ridge, IL 60068. E-mail: dionne@
asahq.org
May 21-24. International Anesthesia Research Society IARS Annual
Meeting. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. For information
: www.iars.org
May 26 -29. The First Conjoint Meeting of ATCSA and ASCVTS.
Bangkok.For information, contact:E-mail:thaithoracicsurgeons@
yahoo.com
June 1-4. European Association of Cardiothoracic and Vascular An-
esthesia and Intensive Care. Vienna, Austria. For information:
www.eacta.org
June 5 -8. 19th European Conference on General Thoracic Surgery. Vi-
enna, Austria. For information, contact: E-mail: sue@ests.org.uk
June 11-14. Euroanesthesia. Amsterdam. The Netherland. For in-
formation contact: Europaplain 2 -22, 1078 GZ Amsterdam. The
Netherland. Website: www.euroanesthesia.org
June 24-28. Annual Meeting of the Canadian Anesthesiologist’s
Society. Toronto, ON, Canada. For information, contact: E-mail:
meeting@cas.ca
September 13-15. The 22nd International Congress of the Israeli Soci-
ety of Anesthesiologists. For information, contact: E-mai: team7@
congress.co.il
October 15-19. American Society of Anesthesiologists Annual Meet-
ing. Chicago, Il. For information, contact: ASA, 520 N. Northwest
Highway, Park Ridge, IL 60068. Website: www.ASAhq.org
November 7-8. Surgery of the thoracic aorta. Bologna, Italy. For infor-
mation contact: Noema, Via Orefici 4, 40124 Bologna, Italy. Email:
info@noemacon-gresci.it, Website: www.noemacongressi.it
2012
March 25-30. 15 World Congress of Anesthesiologists. Buenos Ai-
th
res, Argentina. For information: www.wca2012.com