Improving outcomes in the healthcare industry is a big deal. From symptoms relieved, to practitioners trained, to lives saved: there’s no denying that the bottom line carries big consequences in healthcare and the medical industry.
With so much at stake, how can healthcare organizations stay creative, and proactive, about their bottom line?
Enter: the humble healthcare video.
For over 15 years, we have been providing healthcare video production services to hospitals, wellness programs, medical nonprofits, and more. This experience has proven – time and again – how monumentally impactful a short, engaging animation can be.
We’ve seen healthcare animations help organizations surpass goals across the board: meeting metrics on healthcare product marketing, provider training retention, patient recall and so much more.
Better yet? The science backs our experience up, every time.
Researchers in Denmark recently reviewed 11 studies across various healthcare settings that showed significant improved patient recall, attributed to the use of animated video. Their results saw patient recall improve up to 73%!
What would 73% improved patient recall mean for YOUR organization? Today, we’re going to get you a little closer to that goal, by taking you behind the scenes at our award-winning studio, to share more about healthcare video production.
Join us as we take a deeper dive into the study mentioned above, and highlight four creative ways to improve outcomes with healthcare animation at your organization.
Let’s get started.
How Healthcare Video Production Improves Outcomes: Attention and Retention
Science shows us that explainer videos can simplify your content into digestible parts that are enjoyable and engaging.
But what are the mechanisms make this media miracle possible?
Attention: The Neuroscience of Animation
Animation catches our attention over text because it allows our brains to take advantage of multi-level processing.
When the messaging in our content is aligned, from scripted narration to on-screen visuals, we pay closer attention and are more likely to retain the information later.
This is attributed in part to something called mirror neurons: tiny, but powerful, messengers that work in our brain. Mirror neurons fire when you observe someone else doing something, giving you a sense of involvement and causing that familiar feeling of being ‘glued’ to the screen.
To learn more about multi-level processing and mirror neurons, read our informative blog on the Neuroscience of Animations [click here.]
Or, see the video version above!
Whatever it is you need to explain, chances are your main challenge is how to take a lot of complicated information and present it in a way that keeps your audience tuned in. Healthcare video marketing can do just that for you.
Our team of professionals is experienced at with distilling even the most complex information message into a clear script. Then, custom visuals support each section of narration, engaging the viewer, and making those important points crystal clear.
Retention: Highlights from the Systemic Review on Animation Effectiveness
In our introduction, we mentioned a 2024 systemic review out of Denmark, which investigated the effectiveness of animation videos on health information recall across diverse sectors, in 15 different studies.
Here are a few of their findings that help us answer the question, Can healthcare video truly improve retention? (Spoiler alert – the answer is yes!)
To learn more about the specifics of this study, you can take a gander at the data from Denmark here.
Now, we’ll share four ways video production for healthcare could improve outcomes for your organization – with real examples from our studio to back it up!
1. Use Video to Explain Complex Topics
Whatever it is you need to explain, chances are your main challenge is how to take a lot of complicated information and present it simply.
Or maybe it’s more about the sensitive nature of your work. For a lot of people, healthcare can feel really overwhelming. Animations offer a positive tone that will put people at ease while delivering important information.
Why Healthcare Video Works
Animation be molded to perfectly fit the topic at hand.
The dynamic, active medium of animation brings even the most jargon-y topics to life, leveraging the power of visual storytelling to enhance audience engagement.
And it doesn’t matter if your topic is messy, multi-faceted, or even taboo – because your angles for approach are limited only by your imagination.
Through the use of fictional characters and settings that are designed to represent your community, healthcare videos create a sanctuary for exploring sensitive or controversial themes without triggering specific traumatic experiences or defensive reactions.
Get Inspired: Examples from Our Studio
Check out how this informative healthcare video educates audiences about the complex, lifelong set of genetic conditions associated with Fragile-X. This whiteboard animation effectively provides a high-level look at what diagnosis with three unique conditions means in under 90 seconds.
This quote from Hilary Rosselot, Executive Director at the National Fragile X Foundation, speaks to the power of animated video to build awareness about complicated topics, quickly:
”"We just shared it publicly yesterday and have seen an amazing response! As of 2pm yesterday we had 10k views, 154 shares, 300 likes on Instagram. 6k views, 356 likes, 127 shares on Facebook—for reference, our best performing posts are usually under 2k impressions. We had a lot of views from non-followers (probably due to the high number of shares). This is really exciting! Thank you so much for helping us create a tool that solves a major problem for our community."
Hilary RosselotExecutive Director, National Fragile X Foundation
2. Reach Larger Networks with Accessible Videos
The impact of an exceptional healthcare animation is as strong as it’s reach.
Fortunately, animation is about as strong a medium as you can choose when prioritizing audience access.
Why Healthcare Video Works
When it comes to increased ROI, animated videos can easily – and affordably – be updated to expand audience targeting, audience accessibility, and platform compatibility.
With the options for closed caption, audio description, and alternate endings, you can guarantee accessibility to a wider audience with different versions customized for specific audience profiles.
Furthermore, animated videos can be translated as many times as necessary without the expenses of re-shooting in unique locations and with fluent actors.
Compounding on an ability to appeal to diverse audiences is video’s inherent adaptability across locations: videos are highly compatible with multiple platforms and devices.
Whether on social media, websites, presentations, or pitch decks, our video project packages include a variety of file formats to ensure you reach your network wherever they are.
Get Inspired: Examples from Our Studio
Scroll through this carousel to see the alternate endings, which greatly extended the reach of the Wisloan animation. Click here to see more from their project.
RayzeBio was interested in recruiting more volunteers for their clinical trials, and sought to educate interested audiences about how radiopharmaceuticals are used to treat cancer.
We developed this short explainer video and translated it into 6 languages, effectively expanding the potential recruitment by thousands and thousands of viewers in their native languages.
3. Save Time with Video Training
Healthcare providers are busy, with a never-ending list of truly important tasks to attend to. And yet, it’s imperative that they stay more informed and educated than most.
How can medical videos help practitioners with training?
Why Healthcare Video Works
Trainings can be boring, but with video, training and education can be both engaging and easy to retain.
Earlier in the article, we covered the mechanisms that lead to increased efficacy of animated explainer videos on patient recall and engagement. Incredibly for organizations tight on time and budget, these same principles apply to healthcare providers, just as meaningfully as they do for patients.
Get Inspired: Examples from Our Studio
We helped our collaborators at Grady Health fit a four-hour training into twelve minute video modules, by distilling down the most important content and providing visual aids.
Here is one module on cultural humility. Click here to see the full project.
4. Build Awareness with Healthcare Video Marketing
For many healthcare organizations, awareness is the magic metric. If you’re seeking an effective way to reach wider audiences to promote your medical product, look no further than animation.
Why Healthcare Video Works
Outstanding visuals sell more product. The closer you can bring viewers to seeing exactly how your product improves their lives, the closer they are to converting.
Marketing with animation is an excellent choice because of all the reasons outlined above: not only is the medium proven to be engaging and memorable, video is additionally affordable to customize and scale.
Shooting live footage for medical video production requires space, equipment, actors (not to mention re-shoots to keep things up to date.)
With an expert studio managing the logistics, healthcare product animations are evergreen. Once created, they can be repurposed across websites, social media, emails, and even trade shows – delivering continuous ROI.
Get Inspired: Examples from Our Studio
Our comprehensive marketing campaign with ScPharmaceuticals highlights how animation supports marketing and outreach goals.
Click here to see their full project and central video, which was used as the basis for the marketing collateral seen below. All created with cohesive branding, ScPharmaceuticals deployed their video and connected materials across multiple channels including YouTube, their website, social media, and through patient advocacy groups.
We also produced it on a fast turnaround, allowing them to premiere it during Heart Failure Awareness Week.
Ready to Try Healthcare Video Production?
Communicating in the healthcare world doesn’t need to be hard, our past work with healthcare organizations has proven that.
Through meaningful and concise communication, explainer videos can help your organization make an impact.
Partner with an award-winning healthcare video production company:
