Conveying complex medical topics to those who don’t have a background in the field is a challenging aspect of communication with medical patients. Despite best efforts by medical staff, key facts and information can still get lost in translation which makes it difficult for a patient to actually comprehend what they’re being told. Nowadays, however, healthcare animation has skyrocketed in popularity and promises to help improve the communication of information between medical staff and those in their care.
What is Healthcare Animation?
Healthcare animations refer to short educational films that adequately convey complex medical topics using animated illustrations and motion capture. Designed to be suitable for audiences of all types, the majority of healthcare professionals choose to use these animations for instructional purposes.
For example, even back in middle or high school science courses, small short-term videos may have been played by teachers which demonstrated aspects of a lesson plan. This is simply an extension of the healthcare animation videos used in hospitals. Another commonly seen example is commercials on television in which some type of medication is taken by a live action actor.
In these videos, the commercial most likely changes from live action to animated as it follows the medication through the person’s system after they took it. This can help inform watchers of what the medication does so they understand what happens if they take it.
Benefits of Using Healthcare Animation
There are a number of benefits that using healthcare animation in your organization can bring. Most notably, these include:
- Improved communication of information to the patients who are under your care
- Better training of healthcare practitioners by demonstrating visually what a procedure looks like
- More memorable presentations and descriptions
- Better general public understanding of health-related topics
Downsides of Using Healthcare Animation
While the above downsides can make using healthcare animations an excellent idea for any organization, there are a few downsides that must be considered as well:
- High cost associated for training, mitigated by the fact that hiring actors isn’t necessary
- Can be a distraction for people with a certain type of learning style
- These videos can take up a large amount of bandwidth
How Much Does Healthcare Animation Cost?
The price of a healthcare animation clip can vary based on a number of factors, most notably including: the length of the clip, the complexity of the clip, the type(s) of animation requested, and the requested turnaround time. For example, relatively simple medical procedures or terms can likely be explained with 2D animation, which may only cost in the low five figures dependent upon the length.
However, subcellular topics may require more complex animation strategies such as times schematic illustrations, which can be much more time intensive. As a result of this added time, the price could be in the higher five figures.
How Long Does It Take to Receive Healthcare Animation?
Understanding how long it will take to receive a healthcare animation involves understanding the process of creating that animation. First and foremost, the animation company needs to understand what message you are trying to portray as a healthcare company. For example, are you wishing for an animation that describes a surgical procedure or an animation that discusses how a medication reacts with the body? This requires multiple conversations between the parties.
A script will need to be created after identifying the purpose if the animation, boiling down the complex topic into an understandable short form of media. From there, the script is turned into a storyboard design where voices are recorded to overlay with the animation. Following this, the actual animation is completed, and sounds are added to help bolster the animation.
The entire above process may take anywhere from seven to ten weeks on average, but this can vary lower or higher depending on the complexity of the topic and its overall length. Do keep in mind that extremely short medical animation videos could be completed in as little as a month, but most healthcare organization’s animation videos tend to be on the longer side.
Start communicating better with your patients
Ensuring all of your patients properly understand the information you are trying to tell them as a healthcare professional is important. Whether the healthcare animation you use is for direct conversations with patients or to broadly advertise what specific medication does in the body, this form of animation can have countless benefits. Reach out to a healthcare animation organization to get your vision created.
