How to Hire a Voice Actor for Medical Narration

When you hear the phrase “voice acting,” you might think about animated movies or TV shows.

While many voice actors do work in entertainment, they also work on many other types of content.

Medical narration is most often intended for healthcare audiences such as doctors, medical students, and hospital employees.

Still, some medical narrations target patients or other non-professionals.

For example, you might send patients treatment information online.

All voice acting shares some core characteristics, but there are also many significant differences.

A company training video, public service announcement, and medical narration will require three very different voice actors.

Let’s take a look at some of the key factors to consider when looking for a voiceover artist for your medical narration.

1. Understand Your Audience

Medical narration is obviously more serious than entertainment, but the tone still varies from one project to another.

An academic narration, for example, should have a calm, measured tone that matches the complexity of the subject.

Voice over talent who specialize in e-learning may be a good fit since they have experience with long-form narration.

If your narration is intended for patients or other laypeople, you should consider adopting a more casual tone.

This will make the information seem more approachable and understandable to an audience that isn’t involved in the field.

With that in mind, your first step should be to consider what you want your audience to take away from the narration.

Once you have that goal in mind, you can start looking for a voice actor who can achieve it.

2. Focus on Experience

If you’re trying to produce a professional medical narration, you should work with a voice actor who has enough experience.

Medical narration comes with several unique challenges, so voice actors who focus on other kinds of projects may not do as well with this kind of work.

The first difficulty they’ll encounter is pronunciation.

Unless they have a medical degree, they probably won’t be able to pronounce everything correctly without assistance.

You need to be extra careful about pronunciation when creating content related to medicine — or any other industry with unique terminology.

Serious mistakes can pop up if you don’t involve at least one person who knows the pronunciation.

One famous example of this came in Back to the Future, where Doc Brown pronounces the word “gigawatt” with a J sound.

Contemporary audiences are more familiar with the “giga-” prefix, so they recognize the mistake immediately.

However, nobody on set knew the pronunciation at the time.

To avoid pronunciation mistakes and other errors, look for voiceover artists who have experience in the medical field.

Make sure they feel comfortable asking for help if they encounter any words they’re unfamiliar with.

Of course, you should also confirm the correct pronunciations on your own before recording.

3. Cast a Wide Net

One of the most common mistakes clients make is hiring the first voice actor who appears to fit their needs.

Even if their demo reel blows you away, it’s still worth taking the time to request a custom audition.

This way, you can hear what they sound like reading from your script.

We recommend auditioning at least three to five voice actors and comparing their tapes in detail.

Every project is different, so a strong demo reel doesn’t always mean that they’re the right fit for the content you’re working on.

Medical narration requires a unique mix of professionalism and approachability that can be difficult for some voice actors to master.

Medical narration video by British voice talent Sarah S. 

On top of great vocal skills, the right voice actor will also be ready to work collaboratively and adjust their delivery to fit specific projects.

If possible, try to hire someone who will be available for additional sessions in the future.

You can also ask the talent agency you’re working with for recommendations.

Medical approaches and recommendations are constantly responding to new information, so it’s critical to give yourself the option to update your narration later on.

Otherwise, you’ll have to find a brand new voice over artist and start a second project from scratch for any future changes.

Takeaways

Some aspects of medical narration are similar to other types of content including e-learning and corporate videos.

Still, content related to medicine comes with unique challenges for both the client and the voice talent.

Hopefully, these tips will help you find the perfect voice actor and work together to develop content you’re proud of.

Did you like this article? Have any questions or ideas? Let us know in the comments below.