The Heart of Innovation

We were tasked to film a heart surgery procedure in 3D 360° VR to demonstrate the benefits of Edwards LifeSciences’ Sapien 3 heart valve to the surgeon community. As part of the brief the brand also requested a narrative solution to show the positive impacts of the device on the life of a patient.

Together with Christ Hospital of Ohio and the Edwards team, we researched background stories of various patients who had been positively impacted by this treatment. A real life beneficiary was chosen and filmed to demonstrate how the device changes lives. For the benefit of surgeons, 3D graphics of the patient vitals were inserted into the filming of the operation to illustrate the process.

Our production crew began by filming the patient to show the difficulties of living with a heart valve problem before undertaking surgery. After filming the surgery, we retired to Ohio to film recovery time. The VR showed that in two short weeks the patient had resumed a normal, active lifestyle, including driving his farm tractor and playing with his grandkids. Also, family members and doctors were interviewed to gain a deeper understanding of how the Sapien 3 had enabled the patient to resume normal activities.

The 7 minute video was the key component to Edwards’ presentation to hundreds of heart surgeons at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therepeutics Conference in Washington D.C. The doctors in attendance met it with rave reviews. Many said they had never seen surgical work from such a unique perspective and subsequently invited Laduma to film at their own hospitals.