Why human stories matter in healthcare
We are about to launch a new film with Great Ormond Street Hospital about the children and families who take part in clinical trials. The hospital provides specialist care for children and young people participating in research studies, including early-phase and experimental medicine trials, making it one of the most significant centres of its kind in the country.
Medical and research communication is something we have come to know well through our partnership with GOSH. But what we have learned goes deeper than the individual projects we have worked on together. Working closely with them over many years has taught us what it really means to communicate well in healthcare, and why it matters to the people living through it.
How our relationship started
Our relationship with GOSH did not begin as a professional one. Our daughter was born with CHARGE syndrome, a rare and complex genetic condition, and within her first hours of life, she was rushed to GOSH, where they took on her care. What followed were years of complex medical treatment and extraordinary care. GOSH had the specialist knowledge that other hospitals simply didn’t. They helped us understand her condition, navigate it, and find our feet as a family. That kind of support never leaves you. Over time, our relationship with GOSH grew into something more, and it is that journey, personal and professional, that has shaped how we think about communicating in healthcare.
What lived experience brings to the work
Lived experience changes you. Not always easily, and not always in ways you can immediately articulate. But over time, going through something difficult alongside an institution like GOSH, you come to understand things about communication that are hard to learn any other way: what it feels like to need information that is clear and delivered with care, what it means to feel seen, or not seen, and how much it matters when an organisation gets that right.
When our daughter was born, the doctors and clinicians were very good at explaining her condition. But as we looked further afield, we found ourselves in a world of medical journals and clinical detail. Somewhere in all of that, our daughter stopped feeling like our newborn and started feeling like a list of diagnoses. The human stories were almost impossible to find. What would her life look like? What did it mean to live with these conditions? Where were the families who had been through this and come out the other side?
We were pointed towards charities, and some helped. But I kept wondering why those stories were so hard to find, not just in hospitals, but in the medical world more broadly. In waiting rooms, in the communications families received, and in the resources available to us. Human stories are how we understand the world. Without them, you are left alone with the clinical facts, and that can be an incredibly isolating place to be. That’s something we’ve explored together with GOSH over the years, and it’s at the heart of the work we do now.
We’ve learned that good communication has to work for everyone. It needs to reflect what an organisation does and what it stands for. But it also has to reach the people receiving it on their own terms, meet them where they are, and help them feel less alone. And when staff understand not just the clinical facts but the human reality of what families go through, they can communicate with greater clarity and humanity.
Representation matters
Good communication is not just about clarity. It’s about recognition and whether the people you’re trying to reach can actually see themselves in what you’re showing them. Nobody should be defined by their diagnosis. People are complex, shaped by their culture, their identity, their background, their personality, and by their experiences. Good communication has to reflect the whole person, not just their condition.
A few years ago, we worked with GOSH on an animation helping young people and families understand what happens to their data. As we developed the script, imagery, and characters, GOSH ran focus groups directly with young people. They asked them what they wanted to know about their data, how they wanted it explained, and how they wanted to be represented. Those conversations shaped everything. It was communication that put young people at the heart of it.
That is what good representation does. It doesn’t just inform people. It makes them feel like they belong in the story.
Why human stories change everything
Human stories are how people make sense of what is happening to them. They help people find themselves in unfamiliar territory. They make people feel less alone.
It’s why we think carefully about every piece of communication we make. Whether it’s a film, an animation, or anything else. We ask ourselves: are the people shown genuinely represented, and is the human story really there? That’s what drives our work.
The new clinical trials animation from GOSH will be launching soon. Keep an eye on this space for updates - we’ll share it as soon as it goes live.