Stephanie Stephens

Voice Over Talent

narration voice over

Different “Genres” of Medical Voice Over: A Breakdown for Clients

Voice Over Blog

Medical voice over (VO) work is a specialized field that serves a variety of needs within the healthcare and life sciences industries. It requires a unique combination of technical knowledge, clarity, and a tone that resonates with the target audience. However, many people don’t realize just how broad the “medical narration” category can be. From educational content to marketing campaigns, medical voice over genres are diverse and ever-expanding.

As a busy and successful medical narration voice over talent, I often get asked about the various types of medical voice work I do. In this article, I’m going to walk you through the most common “genres” or categories of medical VO, which will help you understand the wide range of applications for medical narration and how they, and I, can support your specific needs.

1. Medical Explainers

  • Purpose: To break down complex medical concepts or procedures in an easy-to-understand way.
  • Audience: Patients, caregivers, or anyone unfamiliar with medical terminology.
  • Examples:
    • Explaining medical procedures (e.g., “How a Heart Bypass Surgery is Done”).
    • Describing symptoms or conditions in layman’s terms.
    • Instructions for taking medications or using medical equipment.
  • Tone and style: The voice talent must sound clear, approachable, and calm. It’s essential to make complicated topics feel accessible without being overly technical or condescending.
  • Why it matters: These explainers are essential for patient education, making complex ideas less intimidating, and improving compliance with healthcare guidelines.

2. Medical Education

  • Purpose: To educate medical professionals or students on specific topics in the medical field.
  • Audience: Medical students, residents, physicians, nurses, and healthcare practitioners.
  • Examples:
    • Medical training videos on anatomy, diseases, or surgical techniques.
    • Continuing medical education (CME) courses and tutorials.
    • Instructional materials for medical equipment or protocols.
  • Tone and style: The voice here is authoritative yet warm, as the content must be both informative and engaging. It should project credibility while remaining approachable for learners.
  • Why it matters: Accurate and clear medical education narration is crucial for the ongoing training and professional development of healthcare providers, ensuring the highest standards of care.

3. Medical Legal

  • Purpose: To provide clear and precise narration for legal and litigation purposes related to healthcare.
  • Audience: Lawyers, judges, jurors, and healthcare professionals involved in legal cases.
  • Examples:
    • Narration for medical malpractice case documentation.
    • Voice overs for expert witness testimony or depositions.
    • Accident reports involving medical injuries or negligence.
  • Tone and style: This genre demands a tone of seriousness, neutrality, and precision. The voice should exude authority and trustworthiness, ensuring that the information is clear and legally sound.
  • Why it matters: In legal settings, every detail counts, and the voiceover must convey the information without bias, emotion, or confusion. It can help clarify complicated medical data and medical terminology for the courts.
Working in a medical laboratory
Medical narration is done for pharmaceutical companies to describe their newest products: CREDIT: Image by Darko Stojanovic from Pixabay

4. BioTech and Pharma

  • Purpose: To explain complex biotechnological and pharmaceutical topics related to new drugs, therapies, or research.
  • Audience: Healthcare professionals, investors, researchers, or the general public (depending on the specific application).
  • Examples:
    • Narration for pharmaceutical drug ads or promotional content.
    • Explaining new biotech innovations or clinical trials.
    • Investor presentations or corporate communications.
  • Tone and style: A professional, confident, and authoritative tone is essential. Depending on the project, the narration may also need to sound inspiring or optimistic, especially when discussing breakthrough therapies.
  • Why it matters: Biotech and pharma projects often deal with life-changing or life-saving treatments, so the narration must convey the message in a way that is both clear and compelling. For advertising or promotional material, the right tone can significantly impact how the information is perceived.

5. Medical Devices Copy

  • Purpose: To describe the functions, benefits, and usage of medical devices in a clear and concise manner.
  • Audience: Medical professionals, patients, or consumers.
  • Examples:
    • Instructional videos on how to use medical devices, such as insulin pumps or CPAP machines.
    • Marketing videos for new medical technology.
    • Product demos for surgical tools or diagnostic equipment.
  • Tone and style: Depending on the project, the tone can range from highly technical (for professionals) to more patient-friendly (for consumers). In either case, clarity and precision are paramount.
  • Why it matters: The narration must provide step-by-step instructions or product benefits in a way that the listener can easily follow and understand, ensuring correct usage and safety.

6. Medical Advertising

  • Purpose: To promote healthcare services, products, or innovations to potential clients or patients.
  • Audience: Patients, consumers, healthcare professionals, or caregivers.
  • Examples:
    • TV, radio, and online ads for hospitals, clinics, or healthcare providers.
    • Commercials for pharmaceutical or medical device products.
    • Public service announcements on health-related topics (e.g., vaccination campaigns).
  • Tone and style: Medical advertising VO requires a tone that is engaging and persuasive without being overly aggressive. Depending on the brand or product, the voice can range from friendly and inviting to professional and authoritative.
  • Why it matters: In the competitive healthcare market, the right voice can help a brand stand out, create trust, and encourage action, whether that’s scheduling a consultation or purchasing a product.

7. Hospital Marketing Copy

  • Purpose: To attract new patients, build brand awareness, and inform the public about hospital services or community health initiatives.
  • Audience: Prospective patients, families, and the general public.
  • Examples:
    • Video tours of hospital facilities or departments.
    • Testimonials from patients and staff.
    • Marketing materials about new services, medical technologies, or specialties offered by the hospital.
  • Tone and style: The tone is typically warm, caring, and empathetic, as hospitals are focused on providing comfort and healing. A trustworthy, human voice is key to making people feel confident in the care they will receive.
  • Why it matters: Hospital marketing voice overs help build emotional connections with potential patients and their families. A calm and reassuring tone can instill trust and help convey the hospital’s mission to deliver excellent care.

The medical voice over industry is incredibly diverse, with many “genres” or categories that require different tones, styles, and levels of expertise. Understanding types of medical voice over genres is crucial for delivering the best possible narration. Whether it’s educating patients, marketing new medical technologies, or assisting with legal cases, the voice behind the words plays a vital role in ensuring the message is clear, accurate, and effective.

As a professional medical voice over artist, I bring a combination of expertise and experience to all these genres, helping clients communicate their message to the right audience with precision, authority, and empathy. If you’re looking for medical narration talent for any of these categories, don’t hesitate to reach out. Let’s make your project a success together! I’m happy to do a custom audition in my pro VO studio.

Don’t Compare Your Voice Talent to Others’

Voice Over Blog

So, there are thousands of voice actors in the United States alone. And you, oh great voice, are one of them. Two decades ago, if we can remember that far back (!), there were a few hundred people who did all the “big work.” Please, don’t compare your voice talent to others’ voice talent.

Now, the landscape is very different. Just as script styles have changed, and continue to change quickly, depending on the latest trend, so, too have preferred voice styles. It’s so easy to look at many of the “top” voice talents and think, “He/She sounds so (fill in the blank with a complimentary adjective.)”

Hey, maybe you do, too.

Achieve voice over success just being YOU.
Your unique sound can help you achieve voice over goals. (Credit: TheDigitalArtist)

Diversity in Voice Talent Is ‘In’

But remember that “natural” and “conversational” continue to appear in script specs, and all kinds of voices are ultimately reading those lines and making bank. (Mostly) gone are the days of the BIG announcer, shouting voice. Casting directors and marketing pros want voices that reflect the broad brush strokes of America. Even regional accents and dialects book voice jobs, because those people live here, too. And people with accents and dialects buy things.

Voices with texture and character, the ability to be soft and yet powerful, non-salesy and yet convincing, get plenty of work. When someone tells someone else that “You have a great voice,” that can be interpreted in a myriad of ways in today’s uber-competitive voice over environment.

What are “they” looking for? Often, whether it’s casting for acting or voice over, “they” don’t know it until they see it or hear it. It’s totally subjective. That’s why, when we enter the booth, we can stress and strain over “What do they want?” to no avail. We deliver the best, most on-target voice over performance we can, and either they like it for their purposes, or not. So there.

We Are All Different Voices

We live in a world where, no matter what we do or how we do it, there are people who do it better than us or worse than us, but rarely do two people very do anything at exactly the same level, whether it’s sports, educational attainment, or…voice over.

Feeling inferior, lesser than, or jealous? It’s so easy to compare ourselves to X voice talent or Y voice talent, and come away feeling bad, but that’s unhealthy and not beneficial. As psychologist Michael Alcee, Ph.D. writes in Psychology Today, “A violin makes different music than a trumpet; a viola has even subtler differences of sound. This isn’t a fault, but rather what makes the orchestra so beautiful, and what makes each instrument truly special.”

Risks of Comparing Your Voice to Others’

So what does comparing your voice to someone else’s do, if you’re not careful?

It tanks your confidence level: If you need one thing in addition to your voice talent and skillset, it’s confidence.

It creates unhealthy social comparisons: Those can make you depressed and unhappy, and may even prompt you to think, “Oh, what the heck. I wasn’t going to get this anyway.”

It causes you to lose your sense of self: We are all individuals, with an individual sound, much to the delight of those who cast us in commercials or for narration. If we try to mimic the sound of someone else, there goes “us.” If you’ve ever been accused of being a “nonconformist,” it’s OK to do that with your own voice! That’s better than doing a read a certain way because “I think I should,” or “X voice talent does it this way and they’re booking way more than I am.”

It can make you a bit selfish: Don’t you feel good when you compliment someone? It feels like you’re giving freely of yourself, taking joy in celebrating their achievements. Think about X voice talent, “Wow. I

It takes the shine off of your own journey: Very few people hit the mark entirely the first time, coming out of the gate to book the majority of their auditions right off the bat. Achieving success in increments has a good “feel” of accomplishment to it, especially when we’ve worked hard to attain specific goals, some of which may have been rife with challenges.

It prompts you to say “I should”: That can lead to discontent, never being satisfied. Our value as a person, and as a talent, becomes diminished. The breadth of our voice over ability, even if we’re still honing the fine points, is much bigger than a few sentences about what we should or should not do.

Trust yourself in your voice over work.
You may be just “the voice” “they” want! (Credit: by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay)

‘Comparison (in Voice Talent) Is The Thief of Joy’

We weren’t around when he was, but America’s 16th president, Theodore Roosevelt, said “Comparison is the thief of joy.” Even in the mid-1800s, he knew what he was talking about.

So:

Be nice to yourself in the booth or out. Continue to practice your craft, and yes, DO listen to other voice over artists, and do read other blogs about how to maneuver in this crowded voice over business. Do listen back to your reads with “fresh ears,” and ask yourself how you might do them better if you ever have another chance. When you hear a voice you like, think how you might emulate certain aspects of the read and still sound like YOU.

Because, at the end of the day, YOU are just fine in the voice talent sphere. Even better. So please don’t compare your voice talent to others’.