A Case Study on our Virtual Showcase for MD Anderson Cooper

MD Anderson’s Cancer Center’s well-known partnership with Cooper University Healthcare has always depended on the ability of the doctors to go back and forth between the main campus in Houston, Texas and the individual satellite campuses.

Visits between the campuses often included facility tours to highlight the new treatment capabilities available at the various campuses. This was especially helpful when bringing new staff on board so that they could see everything the MD Anderson Network offered their patients. But those tours became impossible during the height of the Covid pandemic, so Cooper faced the challenge of showcasing its capabilities for the MD Anderson physicians in a manner that was both virtual and yet still delivered the effectiveness of an in-person visit.

Recognizing the difficulty of in-house execution for a project of this scale, Cooper reached out to Narrative Media for assistance. The objective was clear: show off the facility and make it look as good on video as it does in person. This was no selfie stick or Zoom video walk-through conducted by a staff member; it needed to set the precedent and build the model for projects of this nature going forward. After all, it’s a valuable and time-saving tool to bring new clinical staff up to speed during the onboarding process.

Though the goal was straightforward, this project was not without its obstacles. A rule of the facility is that filming is prohibited during business hours so as not to disrupt the care of the cancer patients. We also had to work around the doctors’ schedules. So, night filming was the answer. We established a 2-night schedule for filming interviews, B roll, and location footage, working from 5 pm to near midnight, and then we set to work on the post-production aspects.

The end result is a virtual showcase that both facilities are equally proud of and that bridges one of the many gaps left by Covid.

In-person facility tours still aren’t taking place right now, but new team members can get a better understanding of the breadth of capabilities available to patients at MD Anderson Cancer Center with the help of this virtual showcase.

Here are some behind-the-scenes production images: