A look at various writing projects

Virtual VCU worlds used to train, teach and treat in the real one

Across the academic and medical campuses, instructors, researchers and clinicians have turned to VR for teaching, training and patient care. Beyond a new method of learning, VR offers economic and efficiency benefits by reducing costs of training and anywhere, anytime access to academic lessons. Interactive, virtual applications also give clinicians the ability to treat more patients and make therapies accessible at home, using relatively inexpensive hardware and a web connection.

At the ‘extreme edge’ of transplant possibility, VCU Health says ‘Yes’ to liver cancer patient

Patient Shannon “Christ” Harris, liver recipient, and his surgeon, David Bruno, M.D.

“This was a difficult, apex-level transplant case. We just don’t see cases like Christ. His surgery was so on the extreme edge of what we do — you typically don’t transplant people who have had a resection, or recurrence after a resection,” said David Bruno, M.D., interim chair and surgical director of liver transplant at Hume-Lee. “But from the moment I met him, I knew I was going to figure out a way to get this transplant done.”

DMV update: More accountability more online transactions, with eyes to the cloud

Gerald Lackey, Ph.D., who stepped into the role in March 2023, first gave his vision for DMV to dealers at the VADA 2023 Annual Convention in June. Since then, the DMV has launched a new, easier-to-navigate website and has worked to cut costs and improve service for both drivers and dealers.

“We do have expertise, we do have people who are who are passionate about our mission,” he told a group of 50 dealers who came to Richmond on Wednesday for VADA’s Dealer Day at the Capitol. “One of the things that I've come to learn is we just were lacking some of the basic tools that businesses use today. And we're putting those in place.”

Make one day last forever: Covering events like news stories

During Virginia’s General Assembly, every special interest group imaginable (and others you can’t even imagine) descends on Richmond to meet with lawmakers. These are great opportunities for members of industries, medical specialties, or concerned citizen groups to get face-time with lawmakers.

For the Virginia Beer Wholesalers Association, we tag along, get pictures, and follow the day as a reporter of sorts. Then we compile a story that is published on the VBWA website and distributed through email and social media.

Members of the Virginia Beer Wholesalers Association meet with House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott (D-Portsmouth) at the 2024 VBWA Day on the Hill on Feb. 8.

We also developed materials — “leave behinds” — that allowed all members to share and convey a consistent message and educate legislators and aides on the Three-Tier System. What’s that, you ask? It’s how you get many varieties of beer, safely. That, we can all appreciate.

An annual report showcasing a university's 'inclusive excellence'

Creating an annual report is about more than just writing, design, and photos. In fact, that’s just half of it. The rest? Relationships and people management. We worked with the VCU College of Health Professions and Stephan Davis, DNP, MHSA, the executive director for Inclusive Leadership Education and associate dean for Inclusive Excellence and Belonging to create the College’s first Inclusive Excellence annual report.

Development required emails, meetings, and management of nearly 50 stakeholders across multiple departments and programs. The project took more than eight months and features original writing and curated photography, all within the allowed budget.

The project? Challenging. The outcome? Rewarding. Here’s the news release the College distributed in early 2024, when the report was released.

Interview: Ken White, Ph.D., a nursing and patient advocacy icon

Excerpt from an article we wrote for VCU Health Administration at the VCU College of Health Professions:

Kenneth R. White, Ph.D. (VCU ’96) traces his career back 50 years to an early patient — a Black man who was elderly, poor, and alone named Mr. Fisher.

Kenneth R. White, Ph.D., was honored in Richmond on Nov. 9 with the VCU Health Administration Lifetime Achievement & Service Award. Presenting the award is Paige Laughlin, a fellow VCU graduate who serves as Chief Operating Officer at HCA Florida Blake Hospital and is chair of the department’s alumni advisory council.

One night, White — then a teenage nursing assistant — was ordered by a doctor to get Mr. Fisher into a chair. The man refused.

“He was cantankerous, but I usually had a way with him,” White says. With a charge nurse, White lifted Fisher out of his bed and put him in a chair. Then, they secured him with a sheet so that he wouldn’t slide out. “It’s what we did back then,” White said.

But it was not, he admits, a patient-centered or even compassionate way to care for someone.

“Tomorrow will be a better day,” White, as he was leaving his shift, told Fisher, who replied: “I won’t be here tomorrow.” White repeated himself. But on arrival the next morning, indeed, Mr. Fisher was gone. He’d died in the night.

“He gave me my passion: We have to be voices for people who don’t have a seat at the table,” says White, who shares the story with audiences often. “He gave me a passion for patient-centered care, and advocacy for advance-care planning and respecting the wishes of patients with life limiting diseases or conditions."

Read the full piece on White, a VCU Health Administration professor emeritus whom we interviewed via Zoom at his home in Boston.

Copywriting for Senior Living Websites

We were contracted by Richmond agency Solutions Advisors, a team of senior living marketing experts, to help rebuild a website for Edgemere, a community in Dallas.

We have many years of experience working with senior living communities, and have interviewed everyone from those who clean and cook to the men and women who lead these communities (don’t call them facilities), and of course, those who live there (don’t call them old, though some also enjoy that term). Several of our interviews with residents have been quite eye-opening and funny, but that’s an offline story.

Anyway: Despite never visiting Edgemere (we spent a lot of time on Google Maps’ street views and reading a lot about North Dallas from the comfort of Virginia), we worked with the team and designer Dana Hoeck to breathe new life into Edgemere’s online front door.

It looks great. It reads great. And clearly something worked well: Edgemere was named the No. 1 Community in Texas and No. 2 Community in the U.S. by Newsweek/Statista. Not our doing, but we’d like to think we’ve represented those responsible for the rankings well.