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Whiteboard Animation and Healthcare

Posted by Ben Capitano

We are constantly praised for our genre's ability to avoid common regulatory and legal pitfalls. Cartooned/hand-made drawings receive far less scrutiny then their counter parts. They are allowed to live in a free world of ideas, because the image is by it's essence non-literal. Moreover, the rules have been written for literal mediums such as photos, videos, and committee-approved graphics and icons. In fact, I cannot think of a time when our artwork has held up the approval process. What has held up the approval process are specific numbers or key words. Having gone through the regulatory process more times than we can count. :-) We are ready to adjust for specific words and numbers late in the process.

While it is true our genre receives less scrutiny by nature, dealing with the government, Pharmaceutical, and exchange industry has made us capable of working within strict parameters.


Whiteboard Animation and Healthcare: A Perfect Fit

Since 2010 Whiteboard Animation and Explainer videos have exploded on to the world. Google has charted how many times the terms “whiteboard animation” and “Explainer Video” have been entered into it’s search engine. According to Google, the two phrases were non-existent the last until 2010. From 2010 on, the terms have increased 5 times growing 30% each year for the past four years. So what are the reasons for this recent innovation and how does it relate to healthcare?

The Need to Communicate Complicated Subject
Whiteboard Animations were born out of the Ted Talks, a global conference on innovation with a 1 Billion view count worldwide. The purpose of the Ted Talks is a communicate a complicated subject in twenty minutes. It was within in this crucible that Whiteboard Animations and Explainer Videos were born. Illustrating complicated subjects on a whiteboard was a natural idea for the speakers. Whiteboards themselves are tried and true method for mapping out complex concepts. There is something about its ability to annotate thought. It combines a wide array of communication from language to diagrams, math and art. So why is this form so fitting

Avoids a lot of red-tape and unnecessary approvals

Regulatory, when it comes to healthcare Regulatory approvals is one of the things people dread. It holds up schedules, adds to budget, and can sometimes kill a project. With so many  stake holders and so much at stake, it is easy to give up hope.

When it comes to healthcare artistic style choices have to go. While it is frustrating to do this  there are reasons for it. Stylizing chronic conditions more often dehumanizes health related issues.

 

Representing the patient

The purpose of art is to convey emotional intelligence. Art is emotional by nature. In the healthcare arena when artistic choices are made they can often strike the wrong tone. The main pitfall lies in representing the patient. Patients are either drawn too cute which trivializes the patient’s condition or too dark which overdramatizes the patient’s condition. Because heathcare is a sensitive subject, often a scientific emotionally-even tone is the right one to strike. That is why Patients should be represented either as realistic human people or as simple human characters.

 

How to Avoiding healthcare pitfalls AND it is artistically cutting edge

As mentioned above, the patient should be represented in a human way by using photos of patients or filming them. However, photos and film of patients have existed in healthcare for 30 years. Thanks to advancing technology Illustration, Animation, and special effects can be created on a budget and in many ways is cheaper than using film or photography. Animation software also allows for greater flexibility when dealing with regulatory or bureaucratic issues.

But the greatest added bonus is animations ability to add special effects and a bit of magic to any healthcare issue. Animation is the best solution today for the hurdles of representing healthcare in visual media.

 

Healthcare Concepts - The exception

There are two exceptions to representing patients in a human way. One is overarching healthcare concepts and the other is healthcare diagrams. If an issue affects hundred or thousands of people it’s best to address patients conceptually rather than as specific individuals.

In this instance, it’s best to use a style of animation called an infographic. Infographics have been popular since 2000. This style of animation uses plain figures of patients instead of a character. Similarly concepts like timelines, cycles, and fields or areas are often best explained using a diagram.