Best use of video

The multidisciplinary team at The Royal Marsden Private Care, comprising surgeons, medical and clinical oncologists, radiotherapists, pathologists, radiologists and nurses, meet every week to discuss each patient under its care. More than 30 world-leading cancer specialists join these meetings, at which personalised treatment plans for each patient are discussed, making it a unique gathering. Indeed, the Royal Marsden was the first private facility that runs such a structure.

But as the medical market has become more competitive, other medical centres have started to form multidisciplinary teams, albeit with fewer members. The Royal Marsden was keen to showcase the expertise at their meetings, and the positive impact of their discussions on patients, as part of a drive to promote its services. It wanted to attract the attentions of GPS, international embassies and intermediaries and insurance companies.

Conran Design Group attended one of the meetings, where the agency witnessed first hand the collaboration and interaction between the attendees, but also their knowledge and passion. It worked with the doctors and clinicians to develop a script that they felt accurately portrayed how they would discuss a real case.

Recorded like a radio play, a combination of real patient content, including MRI scans and home videos, was supplemented by stock footage and bold graphics. The video focused on a six-year old case involving Jenny, who was diagnosed with cervical cancer when she was 27. The most common treatment would be a radical hysterectomy, which would leave her infertile. Jenny had expressed her dream of starting a family with her partner. The multidisciplinary team meeting, having discussed her situation, came up with an alternative approach – a procedure known as a radical trachelectomy, which removed the cervix but left the uterus. Ten months after receiving the all clear Jenny got pregnant. She now has two children with her partner, who she married in 2014.

The film forms part of The Royal Marsden’s strategic plan, and has been shared on its website, through social media and direct mail and internal channels (to educate the hospital’s consultants with private practices, who can choose any facility, of the talent on their doorstep). It has also been shown at national and international events. The film lasts two minutes and 22 seconds, but visitors to the website an average of three minutes and 40 seconds on its page.

The judges liked the ‘human element’ of this video, which they said provided ‘good insight into how the multidisciplinary team operates, and told an engaging story’. It was developed with its key audience always front of mind. ‘Good editing, good script, good production,’ they added.