The big assumption about medical narration is that it’s all about 17 syllable words, spoken in a range of styles from ‘professional and authoritative,’ to ‘calm and reassuring’.
When I first started as a Voiceover Artist, I pitched my services to lots of different sectors for a couple of years before stumbling on the blindingly obvious:
‘stick to what you know’.
After all, good marketing is all about providing solutions to problems, rather than a list of services. So when it comes to a big sector like Healthcare, it really pays to have an understanding of what goes on day to day, so you can understand what a client’s problems might be.
Understanding the Medical Sector
With a 30 year background in healthcare, I always used to bang on about being clinically literate when talking to potential clients. Like most people, I assumed this was probably the most important factor and the most likely deal breaker.
Being able to deliver complex information in an authentic and believable way certainly is important for credibility. Its also one of the reasons why clinicians tend to give-it-a-go themselves. I would say though that very deep specialist knowledge and oratory skill are not automatically good bed-fellows.
So my message to clinical and technical staff is along the lines of:
‘You’ve invested so much effort in creating this excellent content, so do yourself a favour and take off your magic VoiceOver spectacles and give it to a pro’.
The importance of a message can be all but lost with a poor delivery and it’s not just clinicians I’m talking about either, technicians, scientists and engineers are all included here.
You may be surprised to hear that technical and clinical content is just a part of medical narration. So whilst the tongue gymnastics of a surgical procedure explainer are not a challenge for me, it is just one area of work in Medical Narration.
I’ve worked with Critical Care Departments, Secondary Healthcare Hospital Marketing Teams and Primary Care Groups to deliver everything from medical presentations for distinguished academics, to Voice of God style deliveries at Annual Award Ceremonies.
There really is a case for knowing the sector you’re pitching your services to, if you want to avoid making wrong assumptions about whats needed. Here’s a run-down of some of the different ways that Voiceover is used in the medical world:
Medical Narration
Let’s start then with the one style that everyone associates with medical narration; the navigation of your tongue around the complex language.
Clinical seminars, clinical education, internal professional development and presentations to external organisations are all areas that often require technical narration to sound convincing and professional.
There’s a need for clinical literacy as it helps establish credibility and authority. You don’t necessarily need to have a medical background to be able to handle this material convincingly (it just makes it easier), and there are many resources on the web that can help with pronunciation.
A word of caution about some of these though, as you should never trust the first one you hear as Gospel. A US interpretation may differ from a UK one for instance and some of the AI generated ones are laughably inaccurate.
Even triangulating two or three of these can leave you at a loss for clarity. One of the best ways to get good contextual pronunciation is to watch a video where someone else is using the word, preferably in the Country or even the organisation you’re working with.
If you’ve got the language part completely down — thats a good start. Whats then needed is everything else that effective, engaging and professional narration requires; from interpretation of the script, to editing, mixing, synchronising to screen and working with the client to deliver a clear message.
The Corporate Medical Voiceover
Its important to be able to flex between different styles of narration for Medical Voiceover. Its easy to forget that Hospitals are run as businesses, where patient care competes for attention with a balance sheet.
Its a World of business cases, pitches to corporate investors and innovative service development.
Knowing this means you have to be able to deliver a persuading case to an audience that doesn’t appreciate flannel, is technically minded and is data driven.
In short, being able to read the room is the key to narrating Corporate Medical VoiceOvers that really sing.
Let’s not forget the Trust Annual Awards Ceremony, where there’s always something unique needed to open an awards event.
Patient Information Videos
A patient information video, such as where I explain what to expect from your Open Posterior Spinal Fusion procedure, requires a mix of both formality and compassion. A patient wants to be reassured by a knowledgable and confident tone that also has the emotional band-width to accommodate any anxiety.
These tend to not be laden with complex language and it’s more a case of good acting skill, that every professional voice artist should have in their locker.
Marketing for Healthcare
The ‘Welcome to our Hospital’ message is often served by a local voice and this can add authenticity to the content. It’s worth keeping in mind though, the trade off between a ‘real’ and a polished, professional production.
What tends to work best is a combination of the two, where a professional voice sets the scene before introducing Mary from D3.
Once again, it tends to be an area that isn’y heavy on the technical language.
Mandatory Training
Mandatory Training videos are ubiquitous across all areas of industry these days and never more so than in Primary, Secondary and Community Healthcare. It’s an area that has many common themes such as Fire Safety, Electrical Safety and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
The Healthcare environment also has its own exclusive subject requirements for mandatory training, such as falls prevention and Infection Prevention.
One factor common to all industries is that the content really needs to be compelling, as staff engagement can be a challenge. Here’s where an experienced narrator is really useful.
Experience in Healthcare is really helpful when you’re trying to convey a message to specialists. Authenticity is the key to unlocking engagement with Health Specific Mandatory Training, such as; Falls Awareness, Infection Prevention & Control, Patient Moving & Handling, Safeguarding and Information Governance.
Clinical Training
Whether a training video for Continuous Professional Development, or a Medical Lecture at a conference or seminar, the approach I take is to be clear, accurate and authentic. The voice has to be sufficiently fluent in the subject matter to be credible and able to adapt to both the level of the audience and its size.
Let Me Help Deliver Your Medical Content
I’ve worked with Surgeons, Anaesthetists and Critical Care Nurses to develop Clinical Training Videos, CPD presentations for Medical Seminars and Conferences, delivered business cases for new initiatives and brought clinical case studies to life.
I’ve worked with Foundation Trusts to narrate Mandatory Training Videos, internal briefings ahead of CQC Inspections, Patient Information Videos and Medical Explainer content, including Non Clinical training videos, Falls Awareness and Complaints Management.
I’m confident in my ability to adapt my style of narration to meet the needs of the audience and I’ll be happy to provide you with a free sample read of your script; just reach out and I’ll be happy to help.
