Interactive learning in medicine: socrates in electronic clothes

Traditional lectures have limited ability to maintain attention and to promote changes in behaviour. Active learning, which stimulates the audience to think and participate, may be more effective. We describe our experience with an interactive polling system in lectures to physicians and students. Audience's answers to questions are displayed, providing instant feedback to both lecturer and audience, and promoting the use of case discussions and problem-solving exercises. In our experience, this modality improves the quality of clinical learning and deserves further evaluation.