Complex stuff can be really hard to teach. So can simple stuff sometimes – like how do you teach someone to wipe their own bum? But here at the 16th International Conference on Teaching Evidence-based Medicine (#tebm2010 to those tweeting) it’s becoming enthusiastically clear that the key elements of teaching anything are the same.

1. Be interested in what you’re telling us.

2. Be an expert in something. Not everything.

3. Connect with your audience.

4. Learn stuff as you teach and for you to teach.

And whatever you are hoping folk will learn, try really hard to get the key messages over rapidly – enable proficiency – and let the tincture of time and effort hone that into developed mastery in the years to follow.