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Patientline’s programme complete
18 February 2005

The latest programme to be developed for Patientline is now live across the hospital network.

Patientline previously used PowerPoint slide presentations to convey messages and promotions across their hospital networks and relied on the software’s modest graphic design and animation capabilities. After seeing Digital Marmalade’s In-store TV packages, presentations and adverts they were convinced that our experience in producing video content would be extremely beneficial to the proposed channel facelift/shake up/overhaul.

Digital Marmalade’s approach to the channel’s development was to produce the programme in stages, splitting new and existing messages into stings, promos and instructions. These elements form the building blocks of the channel and comprise of standalone video clips that can be played in any order, allowing flexible control of the broadcast program. As well as affording easy updates, the modular deployment also allows easy repurposing of content for other methods of marketing (i.e. sales conferences, website promotions, print material).

Patientline bedside units are designed and built to be accessible to all patients so all content had to follow suit and take into consideration young and old patients as well as the hard of hearing and people with impaired sight. Animation was suitably paced and featured legible type and distinct imagery at all times. Clear animated instructions on using the unit combine with polished stings to demonstrate the unit’s ease of use and the benefits that the users can enjoy. The ultimate intention of the channel is be informative and useful and encourage patients, family and friends to take advantage of the free services and gently introduce the paying services.

Since its appointment, Digital Marmalade has developed a welcome channel, not only infinitely slicker and more engaging, but one that also considers the constraints of broadcasting within a hospital environment. The content was also redesigned during the project for an older, smaller version of the bedside units and DM effectively produced a second version of the channel to accommodate these markedly different terminals.

The Patientline channel currently reaches an audience of up to 9 million viewers, through 64,000 units across 133 hospitals in the UK.

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Author: Marie Holland