MU Office of Research Documentary:
“A Day in the Life of a Mizzou Oncologist”
In the summer of 2022, I was tasked with documenting the experiences of oncologists working within MU Health Care. My team and I conducted primary research with 8 different oncologists and a health administrator, translating their experiences into a 35-minute documentary film. The film was presented at the end of an eight week period to Roche Diagnostics, the partner of this particular project.
My responsibilities extended from research and pre-production to scripting, shot planning and editing. Because the project operated under a tight deadline, the team planned the first four weeks for primary research and the second four weeks for film and presentation construction.
Realistically, we conducted research for 6 weeks - it’s rather hard to get ahold of a doctor’s free time - and edited from the 5 week mark until the final presentation was due.
Roche Diagnostics’ desire with this project was to determine the primary stressors oncologists face on a day-to-day basis and potentially provide more efficient solutions. As expected, dealing with insurance was the primary stressor of each doctor. Other stressors found included information overload, outdated technology (such as the fax machine) and the transfer of patient information between hospitals.
