This series of whiteboard animations was created between 2016 and 2018 for Professor Susan E. Morgan and the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami. The films address one of the most stubborn problems in medical research: how to communicate clearly about clinical trials, so that more people, particularly those from racial and ethnic minority communities who have long been underrepresented in research, can make informed decisions about taking part.
What I valued most about this project was how research-led it was. The animations were developed out of qualitative, formative research and then formally evaluated, rather than simply produced and published. Professor Morgan’s aim, in her own words, was to convey information in a warm and engaging way rather than a clinical one, which is exactly the brief I love: taking dense, high-stakes medical information and making it human and approachable. The whiteboard format was chosen deliberately for its clarity, and the team’s research even examined how this style of animation holds attention and helps viewers absorb complex material. Turning rigorous research into something a general audience can genuinely understand is the heart of my animation work with academics and researchers, including related health-communication work like my antibiotic stewardship series for Penn State.
The work was commissioned by Professor Morgan, then in the School of Communication and now Associate Provost for Research Development and Strategy at Miami, and funded in part by the Miami Clinical and Translational Science Institute, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Seeing animation used inside serious, federally funded medical research, as a tool to help reduce health disparities, is exactly the kind of impact I hope this work can have.
If you’re a researcher, university or organisation working on public health, clinical communication or health equity and you’d like to turn complex research into clear, engaging animation, I’d love to hear from you. Get in touch.
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