Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute | 2019 Outcomes Report

SME Interviews

To create these narratives, we interviewed more than 20 cardiologists and heart surgeons about their programs and specialties.

The narratives were paired with infographics about program outcomes.

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Services

Research, SME interviews, writing, editing

The project

Build a narrative for the data-heavy stories in Sanger’s 2019 Outcome Report.

Hospitals use outcome reports to share data about how patients are treated, how they recover, and how these numbers compare to other hospitals. These reports also serve as important recruitment tools.

The challenge: How do build an interesting story around dry, technical data?

The strategy

Research and interviewing skills were key to pulling off this project. We needed to quickly learn about intense, technical subjects — like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy — and write interview questions that would get cardiologists and heart surgeons talking. Not always an easy task.

Our agency team partnered with the client lead to identify what program stories and data we needed to highlight. From there, we wrote detailed interview guides and brushed up on our anatomy.

We interviewed more than 20 physicians, digging deep to identify the stories that would turn a dry outcomes report into a compelling read.

Results

The report was published on-time and on-budget—quite a feat for a project that involved coordinating a team of very busy physicians. Much of our content passed through reviews quickly…yet another feat for writers with limited knowledge of heart surgery.

In fact, at the end of our interview, the lead reviewing surgeon said, “Thank you for your work on this project. It’s clear you know what you’re talking about.”

That was a huge win.

You can read the full report here.

What I did

  • Research

  • SME interviews

  • Writing and editing

  • Project management