5 Things I Like About this New Brand We Made for The Melanoma & Skin Cancer Institute
For several college summers and breaks I worked as an infusion room facilitator at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, where I’d check people in for their treatments, handle requests from nurses & doctors, and coordinate scheduling. I’m not going to lie, it was a challenging role to perform seriously meaningful work alongside serious medical professionals while providing a calm, friendly, welcoming presence to the people who were coming in to try and get better while experiencing some serious emotions of their own.
What made it OK (and better than OK actually) was the shared mission of providing exceptional care and the pride that people at Dana Farber took in living that mission.
That experience is one reason that I’m so proud of the brand we just launched for The Melanoma & Skin Cancer Institute, one of the nation’s leading centers for the treatment of melanoma and other skin cancers.
Here are 5 things I like about working on this project:
1. Dr. Ryan Weight
I would be hard-pressed to tell you someone I’ve met who is more passionate about and skilled within their area of expertise than Dr. Ryan. The Melanoma & Skin Cancer Institute exists because he felt that skin cancer treatment in Colorado did not live up to the standards he had experienced in East Coast hospitals, and he decided that it was his responsibility to do something about it, and then he went out and did it.
Dr. Ryan is exceptionally thoughtful about all aspects of his patients’ experience, from their treatment to their comfort. And as a national expert in running clinical trials for skin cancer treatment, he goes the extra mile to ensure that people have access to cutting-edge treatments that can also push cancer research forward.
It was truly inspirational to work with someone who every day rolls up their sleeves in order to help people, and more than that, someone who keeps putting in the time to gain a level of expertise that makes what he does even more impactful.
2. The Team
Having worked with doctors, I know that they are not always the most humble people, but it was refreshing to see how much credit Dr. Ryan gives to his amazing staff. (He literally said, “I think we have the best team around.”)
In my experience in the infusion room, the nurses were the stars. They were constantly alongside the people experiencing treatment laughing, crying, and creating strong bonds, and combined with their knowledge it made them invaluable to the doctors in charge of the treatment planning.
Appreciating each person and the vital role they play in the patient experience is something that very clearly happens at The Melanoma & Skin Cancer Institute, and I think it’s a huge reason why they are known for the quality of their care.
3. The Why
When we first started talking to Dr. Ryan, we felt like it was possible to take the feeling of comfort and support that his patients have in his care and extend that feeling to their first online discovery of the website.
Kelly and I channeled the experiences of our family and friends to imagine what it feels like to be searching for an oncologist. We asked people close to us who’ve had cancer what they wanted to see, read, and feel when they are looking for a doctor. We looked at countless medical websites that try to convey every single detail and fact, and instead tried to create a presence that told a story that you were in the right hands, and that you’d get the information you need in the right setting.
It was an honor to bring Dr. Ryan’s online presence a little bit more in line with his Institute’s real-life presence, because it’s very real what his patients have to face, and we wanted to do what we could to help them feel supported.
4. The First Visit
One of the specific ways we crafted this brand was bringing the initial medical consultation more to the forefront because of how unique and impactful the experience of that is at The Melanoma & Skin Cancer Institute.
Every new patient has a 90-minute first appointment where they meet with the team, and with Dr. Ryan, to review their diagnosis and have a comprehensive discussion about their personal treatment options. Not every doctor does this, first of all, and there can’t be many who take it as seriously and make it as much about the person in front of them as Dr. Ryan does.
Being diagnosed with cancer is overwhelming. If you take a look at a lot of other oncology websites, you’ll see that they often add to the overwhelm by trying to have a ton of information for every possible audience. In my mind, that can create a much more anxious version of what happens when one starts looking on WebMD.
Taking very good advice from our very good friend who had to find an oncologist, we instead focused on being very clear about who Dr. Ryan works with; letting those people know that they would get all of the answers they needed in a comfortable, professional, personable setting; and making sure that we had stories from other patients so people could hear from others who were in their exact circumstances.
5. Dr. Ryan’s Drawings
During that first appointment, Dr. Ryan sketches a diagram of the person’s cancer, all while walking them through the anatomy of the skin and how everything relates to their specific diagnosis. It’s unique to The Melanoma & Skin Cancer Institute because it’s unique to Dr. Ryan, and it’s unique to Dr. Ryan because he believes very strongly in informing his patients to empower them in their own care.
As we were meeting with him, he started drawing a sample for us so we could watch the process, and in that moment I could sense the power of that interaction—a patient getting to see that their doctor knows their exact situation and wants to translate that knowledge for them so they can be better prepared for their treatment journey.
He confirmed our instincts that most patients have a high level of attachment to this drawing, and so Kelly designed an informational page about skin protection that he can also draw on so that people can take it home and share with their own loved ones, letting them use what they’ve learned to make a difference in other people’s lives.
And also, in one of my favorite design touches, Kelly digitized the sample drawing and used it as a subtle background on the website.
To me, this helps convey that the high standard of patient care that Dr. Ryan and his team provide is part of the fabric of who they are as amazing people, and I hope that this new brand allows them to reach their vision of expanding the care they provide on a national scale until that hoped-for day arrives when we live in a world cured of cancer.