When you see a video like "A Life Saved; Laboratory Professionals Make a Difference" do you ever wonder what went into its production? How did someone decide to portray this particular angle to get a message across to the viewers? Why focus on this particular family, this particular laboratory, these laboratory professionals? Well, let me take you through our journey of how "A Life Saved" developed.

Almost 10 years ago, two ASCLS members were talking about the fact that our profession needed some sort of tool laboratory professionals could use to help them realize the impact they make on patient care. This sounds like a fairly simple thing. Of course, we should all realize the value of services we provide to physicians and to their patients, but sometimes, we need to hear that affirmation from someone outside our own laboratory family. So 2 years ago, an ASCLS Task Force was given a charge to develop a video to meet this goal.

The initial task force, made up of educators, laboratory administrators and ASCLS staff members discussed many ideas of how we could get our message out. In the beginning, we thought our title should be "A Day Without the Laboratory" and we would demonstrate the impact on hospitals and various critical departments if there was no access to laboratory services for 24 hours.

We came up with more than 20 different scenarios focusing on various disease states and what would happen to patients if they presented to their physicians' offices or to the emergency department of a hospital and the medical staff had no access to the laboratory tests needed to help them confirm or identify a diagnosis. We looked at scenarios about hospital inpatients in critical areas such as ICU, Surgery, Nursery and more. If you ever have time to think about how critical the laboratory is, to patient care, you will be astounded and amazed.

After reviewing several video company proposals, we decided on Ken Schmidt Productions, in Grand Rapids, MI. Our production consultant had worked on the "Diagnostic Detective" video that was produced a few years ago by Michigan State University, so we knew his capabilities. When discussing with him how we would "act out" our scenarios, he offered another idea that totally changed our approach but kept our focus of demonstrating the impact of laboratory professionals on services to the patients.

His idea was to follow the events in the life of a family who had an illness that depended on continued interactions with the laboratory. The Task Force decided to go ahead with this new approach. We then followed each step of the filming process, offering our suggestions to make sure we kept to the task force charge.

As the production company was in Grand Rapids, it was decided that to keep costs down, filming should take place there. Our video consultant had previously worked with Spectrum Health Advanced Technology Laboratories at the Lemmon-Holton Cancer Center in Grand Rapids, and approached them about being involved in this project. Kim, Collison, the laboratory director, was not only excited about the project, but knew just the family who would be perfect for the video.

Collison also joined the task force and was a valuable addition, offering us on-the-spot insight. The deGuise family, and other players were contacted and the idea was discussed with them. The oncologist, pathologist, oncology nurses and laboratory staff all agreed to be involved. Once all this was in place, the filming began followed by several edits, all of which the Task Force reviewed.

While we were in production, we needed to take care of another aspect of the project--how to pay for this production. We started contacting vendors to see if anyone liked our idea and would be willing to contribute towards its production. We were fortunate that several companies, Beckman/Coulter, BioRad, Antek Healthware, Omega Diagnostics Laboratory LLC and the Phoenix Campus of DeVry University, agreed to donate funds to support the project. We also received generous contributions from NCA and the ASCLS Education and Research Fund. All donors were listed on the video as financial contributors and received copies of the finished product

As completion of the project drew near, we discussed a title for the video and decided on "A Life Saved: Laboratory Professionals Make a Difference." From then on, what remained was editing the finished product, making sure the credits were listed as we wanted and deciding on the color scheme and layout with the help of the video consultants. All in all, the project was a definite learning process for all of us.

I can't emphasize enough that the success of this project was because so many people bought into the concept from the beginning: the deGuise family who allowed us to live through their experiences; the laboratory professionals who demonstrated their expertise and contributions to Johnny's diagnosis and treatment; the production company for their professional, sensitive and diplomatic approach that made working with them so easy; and the Task Force members who gave of their time to ensure our end product met our task force charge.

Recognition
In April, ASCLS received word from our production company that the video had been submitted for 3 different awards, the Healthcare Advertising Award; the Aster Awards, hosted by Marketing Healthcare Today and Creative Images Inc.; and the Telly Awards, which "honor the very best local, regional and cable television commercials and programs, as well as the finest video and film productions, and work created for the Web."

So far, we have won a Gold Award from the Aster Awards, scoring between 95 and 99 percent from approximately 3,000 entries, which is in the top 5 percent of the nation. Judging criteria includes creativity, layout and design, functionality, message effectiveness, production quality and overall appeal.

We also won a Merit Award in the Healthcare Advertising Awards competition. The Healthcare Advertising Awards is the oldest, largest and most widely respected healthcare advertising awards competition. The awards are sponsored by Healthcare Marketing Report, the leading publication covering all aspects of healthcare marketing, advertising and strategic business development. More than 3,600 entries were received in this year's competition, making the awards the largest healthcare advertising awards competition. We have not heard from the Telly Awards group at this time.

And so our journey is complete as far as developing a video that demonstrates the impact that all of us as laboratory professionals have on the outcome of a patient's diagnosis and care.

Your journey is just beginning as you find ways to use this video, to demonstrate to all that will view it, that laboratory professionals do make a difference.

Bernadette Bekken is program director, School of Clinical Laboratory Science, Augusta Medical Center, Fishersville, VA. For more information, visit www.nca-info.org.