With the advent of the digital age, like it or not, the English language has changed. Whether Mr. Webster would appreciate the new acronyms and abbreviations is subject to debate. But he would not contest the fact that today’s idiom is peppered with colorful phrases and terms courtesy of the ever exploding cyber world.

Two terms you should add to your own mix if you work in marketing and advertising are VLE and VMS. VLE is the umbrella term and covers all learning done virtually from simple how to subjects to complex medical procedures utilizing lab tools and machines.  Medicine has become such a specialized field that it is comforting to know that nurses, doctors, medical techs in cardiology or oncology or urology to name a few have ways to learn what is required of them through virtual simulation without practicing on real patients, and DDA is privileged to be immersed in several medical projects that are not only life saving but also light years ahead in application.

We are proud of the interactive media work we are doing requiring video, 2D and 3D animation and complex web platforms. Check out our online portfolios and see for yourself, and then call us if you are in the market for a new website or want to embed video in your present site, or better still want to know more how you can utilize VLE with your product or service.

Seems like everything medical these days is a 3 letter acronym for something. I read an article recently about a firm whose main business was creating 3 word catch titles for diseases. Their work was commissioned by Big Pharma and no doubt most often later supported by extensive Direct To Consumer (DTC) advertising campaigns. Apparently, there is nothing in medical advertising as catchy as 3 word titles for diseases few have heard of but many could have. RLS or Restless Leg Syndrome is one of the more recognizable success stories.

Of more interest to DDA Medical is another pair of Acronyms, VLE and VMS. Virtual Learning Environments and Virtual Medical Simulations, while not quite as catchy as Restless Leg Syndrome, their impact on real world diseases and treatments and their ability to maximize physician training budgets and physician knowledge levels and skill sets cannot be overstated. Unlike the typical Learning Management System (LMS), a virtual training/learning environment or a virtual medical simulation is the single most effective and cost effective tool a medical school or healthcare facility can have to teach, share and enable clinicians across all specialties.

It is somewhat ironic that a Virtual Experience can have more real world impact than a real-world disease title. So despite DTC and LMS, a VMS or VLE from DDA is more than AOK.

This past weekend was full of clearing and packing. With the noticeable onset of fall, it was apparent that it was time to start to pack away summer and move into the next season. So I enjoyed my pool for the very last time in 90º weather; actually, it wasn’t all that enjoyable, since the water temp had dipped down to about 60º. It was all I could do to get in and clean out all of the quickly falling leaves and get rid of any other muck that had accumulated in otherwise unreachable spaces, as my legs slowly succumbed to the cold and eventually lost most of their feeling. Then the rain caught me unexpectedly and I did not get the patio cushions put away in time, so now they will have to wait for the sun to return and dry them out before storing them. The change to winter clothing will be next, putting away sun dresses and sandals, archiving summer so to speak, putting it all safely away until I need them again.

Archiving is an important function of maintenance and upkeep. Sure, we could leave everything out and about all the time, but that would leave things prone to loss and/or damage, and just the sheer mass of it all would be difficult to negotiate. So the smart thing to do is to organize and archive. With the massive amount of work that is compiled, designed and completed here at DDA, archiving is a necessity. Our clients continually re-visit, re-work or re-design new versions or components of their advertising campaigns, and to keep within each branding style, being able to access previous works quickly is important. Imagine having to sift through innumerable files in every category including 3d medical animations, training videos, medical device videos, product photography, on-location photography, logo design, brochure designs, medical website designs, graphic designs, custom medical illustrations, interactive games and virtual medical simulations? One could get lost for years, stalling completion. Organization and archiving is a regular part of the professional DDA way.