Friday Think/g: Doctor, Can You Prescribe Me A Story?

Hi, all.

Hope you had a good week.

Welcome to Friday Thing/k – a brand storytelling canvas where I’d like to share with you smart, creative, inspiring, engaging, cool, and innovative content marketing ideas that take my digital marketing breath away once a week.

Have you seen the movie Concussion?

Starring Will Smith, it’s about the Nigerian-born pathologist who brought the issue of brain damage in retired NFL players to the forefront.

I would highly recommend watching it. It’s a great, and true, story with an amazing performance by Mr. Smith.

The character of Dr. Omalu is fascinating.

One of the pathologist’s rituals shown in the movie is during each of his inspections post-mortem where he speaks to the dead patients, asking them to help him to understand what happened to them and to assist him by telling their stories.

After the movie ended happily, if you can imagine that, it got me thinking…pathologists, MDs, and scientists, in general, are great storytellers.

Diagnosis’ and stories have a lot in common.

After all, both involve compelling mysteries that need to be solved for the audience.

Researching it a bit online, I found quite a lot of articles and studies discussing the role of storytelling in medical diagnosis and how narrative and listening to the stories of their patients can help doctors become better practitioners.

Here’s a paragraph from a post that I discovered and liked, by Dr. Kathryn Hughes:

Telling the story. This isn’t easy, but this is rewarding. It’s how we take care of patients. This is what doctors do every day. This is what I do. So, I am a writer, a storyteller, just as I am a physician, a surgeon. This storytelling is the heart and the art of good patient care.

Storytelling in healthcare is a powerful tool for doctors, administrators, staff members and patients. It can be a source of effective communication which enriches and engages both patients and doctors. It can also ignite empathy and imagination, giving life to a medical issue that might not have been seen or felt before.

Headache and migraine relief drug, Excedrin, created a ‘Migraine Experience‘ that lets non-sufferers ‘see’ what unbearable headaches feel like.

The pain pill company used a virtual reality platform that replicates common migraine symptoms,  like light and sound disruption, disorientation, and aura.

“We’re simulating the symptoms of a migraine — everything but the pain — because experiencing is believing,” said Excedrin rep, Scott Yacovino, in a statement about the experience. “Allowing non-sufferers, for the first time, to see what it’s like to have a migraine.”

Are you ready to experience the pain?

Thank you, YT (Yusuke) Tsutsui, a Senior Account Strategist in Outbrain Japan for sending me this video.

Stories also have the power to motivate, inspire acceptance, and action.

Argentinian organization Fundación Argentina de Trasplante Hepático (FATH) recently promoted the value of organ donation worldwide with “The man and the dog,” or El hombre y el perro.

Last May, they produced a-90 second moving commercial launched in association with Argentina’s National Organ Donation Day. It was inspired by the story of Hachikō, a Japanese Akita dog who looked out for his deceased master for ten years after his death in 1925.

Beautifully crafted by DDB Argentina, are you ready to shed a tear?

Thank you, Joe James, a Business Development Director in Outbrain ANZ for sending me this video.

Is there a doctor in the audience?

I would love to hear your what you think.