Solution #949: A Watchful Eye

Featuring: Force Health Protection: Inside the AFHSC
Client:  Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center

The Idea:

The Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center serves as the military's version of the CDC. The AFHSC needed a video  brochure about their organization to explain some of their recent changes in the organization; the role of epidemiology, health surveillance, and the impact for the American Military; as well as, their global role and function within the Military community.

The Challenge:

The first challenge was to understand the history of the organization, its merger of three different organizations into one coherent global operation, and their work in force health protection.  The next challenge was to help tell their complex story and simplify it for a number of different audiences. Another was to find a way to represent their international work without the resources of traveling to all of their laboratory locations.

The Solution:

Video Solutions produced a 10-minute introductory film that told the story of how AFHSC operates and protects our armed forces through medical surveillance. This joint service health surveillance unit has three main functions that include the gathering of data, analysis, and dissemination of information.  To illustrate the various functions, Video Solutions conducted interviews with the key members of the different units within AFHSC, and additional videography was obtained of their local operations in action.  We showcased their laboratory, the DOD Serum Repository, their data analysis unit and their communications unit. It was determined that the activities in Lima and Iquitos, Peru would best represent the global efforts of AFHSC’s research and information gathering, so a trip was planned for our camera crew to spend nearly a week capturing footage of tropical medicine work on the Amazon River, conducted community health surveys on location and in local hospitals, and the infectious disease research at the US Naval facilities.  The end program is being used in medical and epidemiology conferences, the AFHSC's website, as well as for military leadership across all branches of service.

Honors:

2012 Aurora Awards - Best of Show Platinum Award and a 2013 Silver Telly Award