EVAR Surgery

A 2D animation series for patient education

Every year, hundreds of patients receive the Endovascular Aneurysm Repair (EVAR) surgery to help treat a condition known as an abdominal aortic aneurysm, a balloon-like swelling that occurs on the walls of the aorta.

As a part of my master's research project, I created a patient education animation series to help improve patient outcomes in four main areas: patient education on the condition, how the procedure works, and what the patient is required to do before and after their surgery.

During the transition to remote healthcare at Toronto General Hospital as a result of COVID-19, this animation became an essential tool for the EVAR patient intake process. To this day, these animations continue to support patient education for hundreds of EVAR patients treated at Toronto General Hospital every year.

Roles

Visual Designer
Animator
Producer
Script Writing
UX Research

Year

2019

Worked With

Dr. Michael Corrin / Supervisor
Dr. Shelley Wall / Supervisor
Dr. George Oreopolous / Content Specialist
Dyo Ramcharan / Content Specialist

Master's Thesis Project

MSc. Biomedical Communications, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto

Recognizing an Aneurysm

Preparing for EVAR Surgery

After the EVAR Surgery

Script Writing

Everything starts with the script. We invested a lot of time researching and reviewing the pre-existing teaching materials in order to understand the learning needs of EVAR patients. The script was then written with ongoing feedback from my team of content supervisors: a vascular surgeon, a patient co-ordinator, a patient education specialist and new media expert.

Storyboarding

Following the script, the storyboards were then drawn. We decided to design the animation with minimal text and simple, colourful visuals in order to engage the patient and allow for future voice-over translations in other languages.

Animation Asset Creation

The client was very happy with the fun and freeform shapes built into the design. Now it was my task to take these shapes and sharpen them a bit to create a more polished feel.

Animation Final Product

Once storyboards and animatics were completed, I began production. I created the assets in Adobe Illustrator and commenced rigging all of the characters required in the scenes using Duik. Audio and finishing touches were then added in post-production.