The Fabric of Health

How can big data analytics and algorithms make a difference in the health of a single patient? For the data scientists at Arcadia and some of America’s biggest health systems, this is the question they live to answer. Through a portrait series and a set of films using a direct-to-camera approach pioneered by Erroll Morris, we reveal the people and processes that come together to turn lifeless data into life-saving care.

The Data Crunchers

Healthcare is a massive ecosystem increasingly powered by big data. Behind the doctors and nurses and front-line caregivers are teams of data analysts in back rooms crunching numbers – knowing each data point leads to someone’s sick mother or friend. In this portrait series, we give an inside view of the smart, passionate people behind healthcare’s big data.

Seattle-based Fred Hutch is a national leader in cancer research. Back in the ‘70s they pioneered and won a Nobel Prize for bone marrow transplantation. Today, they’re doing next-gen immunotherapy research with the audacious goal of eliminating most cancers by 2025. The Hutch came to us with two related challenges: First, help them explain the complex field of immunotherapy to patients and donors in a simple but compelling way. Second, help them humanize and differentiate their unique approach to research. In the absence of a brief we created our own. Our discovery process led us to a powerful unifying theme: Where next-gen research joins hands with cancer care. With every piece of content, we’d speak to both the head and the heart behind Hutch’s life-changing mission. We proposed a content package that would capture different dimensions of this story and provide a set of complementary assets to use across key channels. From there...we dove in, spending an intensive week on Fred Hutch’s lakeside campus learning, collaborating with in-house teams, and capturing stories. After on-camera interviews with multiple scientists we decided the Hutch’s story was best told by one articulate and approachable researcher-doctor who spends her days moving from lab to bedside and back.

The Problem Solvers

Healthcare’s biggest challenges can only be solved through in-the-trenches collaboration and problem-solving. In this series of short films featuring Arcadia data analysts and health system leaders, we use an “Interratron” technique pioneered by Erroll Morris to reveal the partnership dynamics that led to breakthroughs in patient care.