double take season one

The new england journal of medicine
film production & story development

In 2022, Youtube announced they were partnering with the world’s most influential medical publisher, The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), to create a video series that would bring trusted health information to both medical audiences and non-medical audiences. The series, which NEJM named the Double Take series, explores culturally relevant and evidence-based health information in videos that are engaging, accessible and free to online viewers.

We were brought on by NEJM as their main external partner on the project. For season one, we created video stories on 5 topics— Sickle Cell Disease, Migraine, Weight and Health, Atrial Fibrillation, and Malaria. Through interviews with medical experts and patients, we dove deep into these topics and crafted video stories built for YouTube’s diverse audiences.

With the goal of reaching both physicians and patients, most topics include at least two videos designed for the distinct needs of these audiences. We further segmented the information into 60 second trailers for social media, with the goal of directing viewers to the longer videos hosted on YouTube and The New England Journal of Medicine website.

sickle cell & gene therapy

Sickle Cell disease has received a lot of media attention due to recent, exciting gene therapy advancements that could have implications for other diseases as well.

These advancements include gene editing, where the patient’s cells are taken from their body ‘fixed’ and put back into their body. Some have even gone as far as calling it a cure for sickle cell. In the words of one of the interviewees, “the science is as elegant as it gets.”

However, these advances include significant risk, cost, possible infertility, and often aren’t accessible to the majority of the patient population. Moreover, because of structural and systemic racism, many of the individuals living with sickle cell disease are currently not getting the basic level of care that they need.

As one interviewee put it, “Sickle cell disease is the canary in the coal mine of health equity.”

In this video, we aimed to balance these messages—explaining and celebrating the recent scientific advances and advocating for the social and health justice gains that will make needed care accessible and equitable.

Video is a medium uniquely capable of communicating with nuance and holding space for multiple perspectives.

In our story design and research, we seek a range of perspectives and strive to look at multiple sides of an issue, following the lead of those who are the most impacted, in this case that was people living with sickle cell disease. Featuring multiple voices can bring depth and complexity to a topic and also makes the final video more engaging.

our client

The New England Journal of Medicine

our role

Story Design
Film Production
Editing

Our team

Story Contributors:
Trinity Love
Terry Jackson
Phillip Okwo
Teonna Woolford, Cassandra Trimnell
Alexis Thompson
Matthew Heeney
Michael Debaun
Melesa Love

Directors and Producers: Catherine Orr
Elena Rue

Consulting Producer:
Cassandra Trimnell

Cinematographer:
Cheryl Hess
Brynmore Williams
Nikki Bramley
Leo Maco

Editors:
Catherine Orr
Katie Falkenberg
Elena Rue

Assistant Editor:
Andie Rea

Motion Graphics Artist:
Victoria Blair

Colorist:
Patrice Bowman

changing our understanding of migraine disease

For decades and perhaps even centuries, migraines have been considered a disorder of “nervous women.” Today, migraines are considered among the top causes of disability and the critical need for managing the disease is being taken much more seriously.

Recent medical advances have made this chronic condition less debilitating for many, but continued progress in the field is essential.

Early in our partnership with the New England Journal of Medicine, we uncovered their goal of creating videos that reached both physicians and patients—two distinctly different audiences with vastly different experiences and starting points.

That’s why, for this topic and many others in this series, we created two videos —a ‘physician-facing’ version and a ‘patient-facing’ version.

Both versions aim to inform and inspire, but the health information is curated and communicated differently depending on who the content is intended to serve.

In this ‘physician-facing version’, we explored information that would support clinicians caring for patients with this common condition. Acute and preventative treatments are discussed, as well as barriers to care that must be overcome so more patients can access needed therapies.

In the ‘patient perspective’ video, we aimed to show the journey of individuals living with this debilitating disease and the ways research is changing the perception of migraines. Watch it here.