Project Aesop
Written by: Matthew Perrin Resident Ghost Writer
This blog post is relatively brief but significantly educational—two beneficial features that commonly characterize medical animation. In fact, we might go so far as to call this blog post a Public Service Announcement. Okay, we won’t go that far but we do consider this an important announcement aimed at raising public awareness. So what’s the big news? Project Aesop has been released to the public! Before you start scratching your head and asking: “What is Proj-?” read a little further. We anticipated your question and answering it is one goal of this blog post.
“Lumbar Spinal Fusion” — a Project Aesop instructional video
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/42944239 w=500&h=331]
Sharing its name with the famous author, who taught valuable aphorisms through fanciful fables, Project Aesop was an initiative undertaken by Ghost Productions back in 2005 for a similar purpose. This initiative involved creating a series of concise, educational animations that depict various spinal pathologies and the surgical procedures used to treat them. We at Ghost believe that patients who best understand what is wrong with their health, and what treatment options exist, are best equipped to decide what is the right course of action for them. That is the ultimate goal of Project Aesop. And while these thirty animations may be seven years old, the information contained within these videos has stood the test of time.
Back in 2005, the largest web-based video-sharing service, YouTube, was in its infancy—known and used by few people other than high school and college students. As a result, the Project Aesop videos were distributed to physicians, clinics, hospitals, and universities by mail. But broadband Internet capabilities have expanded media distribution options tremendously in the past half-decade, allowing for significantly larger file uploads to media-sharing websites. Therefore, in keeping with our desire to give back to the world through our skills and talents (which we often possess in greater abundance than time), we at Ghost Productions have opened our animation archives to retrieve Project Aesop and make these thirty instructional videos available for all to view. In fact, we encourage non-profit organizations to use these videos for educational purposes. To view these videos and learn more about sharing them, please visit our video collections on Vimeo and YouTube.
Want to know more about what happens at ghOst Productions? Visit our primary haunt (a.k.a. homepage).