“Smarter Medical Care provides a much needed resource to patients and families undergoing serious illness. Utilizing a friendly, compassionate tone, its videos and podcasts help people learn to communicate better with their healthcare providers and support systems in a simple, straightforward way. In these days of rapidly changing healthcare environments, Smarter Medical Care allows people to learn about difficult subjects in an easy to navigate format at their own pace, whether through watching videos on the website itself, or through podcasts that may be listened to at home, in the car, or while out for a walk. The overall message is that the site is there to help, that everyone deserves the right to learn and communicate in the healthcare system in a way that improves quality of life, even in the face of serious situations.”

Oncology Nurse, San Francisco, California

“Health care is delivered in an extremely complex system that is often unpredictable and bewildering, especially for the uninitiated. Smarter Medical Care is an essential centralized educational resource for patients, families, and friends. Smarter Medical Care helps the anxious patient, under-informed family member and well-intentioned friend to prepare for, confront and cope with the many challenges associated with serious illness. Smarter Medical Care delivers the guidance that the clinician might defer at the hospital bedside or office appointment due to constraints of time. In a stressful situation like an episode of illness, experience alone can be a harsh teacher. For patients and those whom they love, Smarter Medical Care is a compassionate teacher, counselor, and coach, available on demand, to make the journey less of a jostle.”

Gastroenterologist, New Haven, Connecticut

“We really enjoyed working with Smarter Medical Care. The staff was professional and responsive during every step of the process. The videos created are very useful tools in our daily work. Our organization utilizes them online and through social media. In addition, the clinics we partner with utilize them in different ways, including having them loop in their lobbies. Overall it was a positive experience and we received a great finished product.”

MS Cancer Information Specialist, West Virginia University Cancer Institute

“Smarter Medical Care has been a partner of Community Health Resource Center as we share the same goal: helping to empower patients and manage their individual wellness. Stress and anxiety impedes communication between the patient and clinician. Smarter Medical Care has created content and technology to address patient needs regarding communication to help reduce stress. Their solution has received positive reviews from patients and clinicians alike and I would recommend them to anyone who is in the market for health education content or videos or the development of custom education materials.”

ED, Community Health Resource Center, California Pacific Medical Center, a Sutter Health Hospital

“Bob is a well educated, super smart and highly respected Oncologist, but he’s also a good guy and can reduce complex medical stuff into easily understood language. He did that for me. He not only educated me, but removed my anxiety as he walked me through the disease, it’s origins and it’s likely behavior. He carefully explained my options and likely outcome in plain English to a point where I began to look at my cancer as just another problem with a solution. The materials produced by Smarter Medical Care are excellent printed and visual pieces that detail Dr. Rodvien’s thinking on cancer and Doctor/Patient relationships. It’s all online and Bob is accessible. I urge anyone diagnosed with a serious cancer to contact this group. My personal results were excellent, I recovered quickly and I am cancer free four years later.”

Patient

“Cancer is not well understood. We set out to explain what cancer is using a short video format, which is a new medium for our team of content developers. It was important to collaborate with a video production company that not only understood how to apply health literacy principles to the medium, but could also work with our team of writers, editors and translators to meet rigorous standards for cancer information development. Most importantly the video met its main objective. As a result of user testing, we know that viewers’ knowledge about cancer improved. “It’s 2 minutes long and now I know all I need to.” Working with Smarter Medical Care, and Brian in particular, was a very positive experience. The work was high quality, professional and highly collaborative. I would recommend them to anyone looking to create a health education video.”

Director, Cancer Information, Canadian Cancer Society

“Smarter Medical Care produced a short video on recovering from total joint replacement for Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Brian Rodvien and his staff were very professional and easy to work with. They were responsive to suggestions and met deadlines on time and on budget. The use of animation allowed us to focus on key messages without the distraction of extraneous imagery and made it much easier to create a Spanish version of the video. I would recommend Smarter Medical Care to anyone needing a low-cost custom video on a medical topic.”

Director, Patient Education, Vanderbilt University Medical Center