David bolinsky explains the art of medical animation.
The audio quality is not very good, but the guy does simplify the complicated process of creating visually appealing and accurate medical 3D animations.His "The Inner Life of a Cell," highlighted at TED2007 won widespread admiration.
As David bolinsky described before in March 2007 while presenting on the same platform,
a mental image of the cell as a large, bustling, hugely complicated city that's occupied by micro-machines.
His xvivo (@ Connecticut) is a successful medical animation studio.
Our award-winning animation studio creates compelling visual productions for pharmaceutical, medical device and biotech companies; advertising agencies; educational organizations; museums and broadcast companies. From script to screen, we provide custom education and communication services for every client.`
In continuation of my last post on FDA meet regarding "Promotion of FDA-Regulated Medical Products Using the Internet and Social Media Tools" hearing, Heres the schedule and speaker list.Kindly note that this is only the first version and likely to be tweaked later depending on speaker availability at that time.
Hearing Date: November 12 and 13, 2009 Hearing Name: Promotion of FDA-Regulated Medical Products Using the Internet and Social Media Tools Location: National Transportation and Safety Board Conference Center, 429 L’Enfant Plaza, SW., Washington, DC 20594
Sales and marketing in the Pharmaceutical industry has always been a very expensive affair, with some people claiming that the industry spends more money on marketing than on R&D.The emergence of internet technologies, and especially Web2.0, has dramatically changed the scope and potential of marketing functions for most industries, except pharmaceuticals. Why?
Because there are NO clear guidelines by the regulatory authorities.
Healthcare + Social Media: 2009 Trends and strategy
The dilemma of not having regulatory guidelines for marketing via such tools as Twitter, Face book, blogs and websites, came to a head in April of 2009 when the FDA sent warning letters to 14 companies for search- engine ads that the FDA said violated regulations regarding presentation of fair balance. The industry argues that the regulations requiring disclosure of risk information in print and broadcast advertisements should not be applied to internet ads that only contain 12 words on Google ads, or 140 characters on Twitter.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will now hold a two-day public hearing on November 12 and 13 in Washington, on how pharmaceutical companies use the web and social-media tools to market their products, the first step in a long overdue process that will finally establish guidelines for how drug makers proceed in a Web 2.0 world.
"This meeting and the written comments are intended to help guide FDA in making policy decisions on the promotion of human and animal prescription drugs and biologics and medical devices using the Internet and social media tools,"
"Although the agency believes that many issues can be addressed through existing FDA regulations, special characteristics of Web 2.0 and other emerging technologies may require the agency to provide additional guidance to the industry on how the regulations should be applied."
Very few expect the hearing to provide any solid guidelines so soon, but the inclusion of social media enthusiasts in this meeting is a very positive sign from the FDA.
Not all are optimistic about the use of Social media in pharmaceutical marketing.Some of them are sitting on the fence while others believe social media tools may not be the path to be followed by Pharmaceuticals.
Over the years companies have adopted various tactics to get doctors to engage with their online product presentations, or e-details. Initiatives include obtaining permission from doctors to email them an e-detail, placing the e-detail on a pharmaceutical website, placing a banner on a website linking to an e-detail, and placing the e-detail on a doctor community website. The results have been varied..
There are a number of ways to e-present to doctors and choosing the best layout and design is not always easy. Making a simple bullet presentation with linear navigation (next/previous arrows) is one simple way to kill your content. But then, What actually works?
Pharma websites have been proved rarely to attract doctors (only 2 per cent of the 2,762 doctors questioned in a Doctors.net.uk survey stated pharmaceutical-owned websites as a source).
Banners on websites, although considered cheap, do not drive engagement and, dependent on banner location, may not allow you to know the profile of the individual clicking on your banner.
E-detail on a doctor community website, however, offers the advantage that doctors are already utilising the site on a daily basis, and campaigns can be promoted to specific specialties.
Understanding the audience
Doctors.net recently conducted a survey to investigate the best way to engage doctors with an e-detail. A total of 94 members of the community were surveyed, 32 of whom were GPs and 62 were in specialist care (across a number of different specialities). Of the 62 from specialist care, 43 were consultant/specialist registrar level. The study combined facilitated face-to-face research and non-facilitated online methodology to determine the optimal design structure for an e-detail based on doctor feedback and the speed with which doctors find information.
In the online study, 84 doctors were shown wireframe templates of potential e-detail layouts (template 1 contained three key messages; template 2 offered menu navigation and prioritised key messages; template 3 provided menu navigation, and template 4 was a linear "click through"). Participants were asked for their preferred layout based on certain criteria such as ease of use, design, and simplicity. The content was presented as data only and did not involve webcasts (or other rich media). The doctors were invited to indicate their favourite and their second-favourite template based on how they would most like to receive information online. Responses were submitted through an online form and results were collated.
Of the 84 doctors, 62 chose template 3: menu option as their most, or second most, preferred layout, making this the clear winner. With two points awarded for a first choice and one point for a second choice, the final rating was template 3: menu navigation in first place with 90 points, followed by template 2: menu navigation and prioritised key messages with 69 points, template 1: three key messages with 47 points and finally template 4: linear "click through" with 45 points.Doctors stated that they felt template 3 was clearly laid out and that the left hand navigation showed exactly where to go to get the required information. It was also seen to demonstrate good use of space and the top buttons were popular. In addition they felt that the headings were obvious and the fact that they could choose where to go, among other things, was appreciated.
Below is a sample of template 3 - Menu navigation
Template 3: menu navigation prove to be the most popular choice in the online study, it also proved to be the most efficient format for finding information quickly, with the tasks being performed more than twice as quickly as with templates 2 and 4. Based on their speed, they also got to the information they wanted the quickest using template 3.
Template 4: the linear "click through" model was the least popular with doctors in both studies.
Recommendation to companies wishing to engage with their target doctors using email / epresentations in 2009 would be to use the Left menu navigation approach.
The 1st Annual International Science Animation Awards (ISAA) were presented in Guiyang, China August 8th 2009. The event honored the extraordinary imagination and creativity of those transposing scientific concepts and conclusions into renderings of reality that reflect our unseen world. Finalists from Japan, Taiwan, China, Korea, and Thailand were in competition with pieces created for CNN, HBO, National Geographic, Bristol Meyer's, and some of America's top medical animation companies for awards in only four categories; Physical Science, Natural Science, Children's Education, and Honorable Mention
This year's Sci-An Awards went to:
Natural Science - NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, USA for its comprehensive 3D animation of changing global conditions in "Global Warming".
Physical Science - NUCLEUS MEDICAL ART, USA for their detailed and nuanced 3D animation of human birth in "Birth and Complications".
Children's Education - JESTER INTERNATIONAL, Taiwan for their informative and cartoon-like depiction of healthy bacteria on a child's arm fighting-off external pathogens for early primary school in "Oh! Bacteria".
Honorable Mention was awarded to JANNIS PRODUCTIONS - USA for their complex and sophisticated rendering of bioactivity in the human brain at different stages of Alzheimer's, in HBO's special series "The Alzheimer's Project".
A televised awards show will be aired later this year and includes a live orchestra tribute to the legendary Hayao Miyazaki's animated films, with musical themes serenading brief montages from many of his animated features.
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