11 Ways Explainer Animations Help Clinical Trials

We’re a UK explainer animation company founded by animators and creatives. That means we have the knowledge and ability to create animations which better communicate to your audience and help your message cut through so much noise. 

But how can explainer animations help you communicate when you have to deliver complicated messaging? For industries like pharmaceuticals and medicine, it’s nearly impossible to think of something more effective in storytelling and being able to demonstrate benefits other than animation. 

Today’s blog is going to take a quick but closer look at how explainer animations can help healthcare operators and pharmaceutical companies communicating clinical trials as well as patients with their own unique concerns.

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1. Simplify Complex Information

With all the information available to pharmaceutical companies and healthcare providers, it can often feel overwhelming or even bloated to communicate effectively. Equally important is how a patient may digest this information. 

But with animation, you can take a clinical trial process and put it into clear, engaging narratives. Using compelling visuals, concise narration, and simple language, you can simplify complex concepts and make it even more accessible to patients and healthcare providers alike.

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2. Boost Patient Understanding

A key barrier to patient uptake on a novel medicine is patient understanding, or better yet, patient education. It’s not that you have patients who aren’t interested, it's that they need better information. Making the information easy to understand is going to be key to increasing participation numbers. 

Explainer videos help patients grasp what's involved in clinical trials, from eligibility criteria to the benefits and risks associated with participation.

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3. Enhance Patient Trust and Enrollment

Any clinical trial wants a patient who is better informed - as per point number 2. But clinical trials also need to communicate trust and subsequently, help boost enrollment. When patients have a better understanding of what is going to happen in the trial process, they're more likely to feel confident in their decision to participate. 

Animations have the power to build trust by providing the information that is usually a barrier to entry for many patients. From duration to what they can expect in terms of positive and potentially negative side-effects.

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4. Improve Communication

Because you’re simplifying complex messaging you can more effectively improve communication. How? By standardising what healthcare providers want to communicate to all the patients, covering everything that is needed to an active audience. This means that every patient, pre-trial, has the same clear and comprehensive overview.

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5. Increase Time and Resource Efficiency

One animation can relieve a lot of pressure on the finite sources a company performing a clinical trial has.

Instead of repeatedly answering the same questions in consultations, medical staff can direct patients to well-crafted explainer videos. This will free up time with consultants and healthcare providers to speak about more specific topics and specialised needs.

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6. Expand Reach

Instead of just a singular document posted on a board or a pamphlet handed out to a patient, an explainer animation can be shared across various platforms—from hospital websites and waiting room displays to social media channels. 

By going down this multi-channel approach, you’re making sure that the message reaches a broader audience in a location where they are more likely to see it.

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7. Standardise Information

As per point number 4, you can improve communication by standardising the information across all the patients with an animation. Why does this matter? It resolves any conflict that may occur when patients are told two different things - by accident. It helps speed up messaging and it means that everyone is getting the same information which means no one feels like they are getting special treatment or not being told something.

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8. Streamline Onboarding

Explainer videos can streamline the often convoluted and confusing onboarding process for both patients and staff involved in clinical trials.

Imagine being able to show one clinical trial animation which helps explain things like duration, the medication, the Mechanism of Action and highlight what is required by all parties? With animation you don’t have to, it’s what it's perfect for.

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9. Visualise the Trial Process

You can help patients understand what the process is going to be by creating a virtual tour, explaining each step and its importance. You can also address potential participant concerns and emphasise the stringent ethical guidelines followed in all clinical trials.

This will help to build trust - point number 3 - and improve enrollment numbers when delivered effectively.

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10. Facilitate Informed Consent

Explainer videos can be really effective in explaining the concept of informed consent, which is crucial for ethical clinical trials. They can clearly outline what consent means and what participants are agreeing to.

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11. Address Safety Concerns

By standardising messaging you can also address safety concerns one time, in one video. And this helps to build trust as many potential participants have concerns about the safety of clinical trials. Explainer videos can effectively communicate how trial safety is ensured, potentially reducing anxiety and encouraging participation.

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