If you’re a voiceover artist who’s found yourself trying to break into the field of medical narration, you’ve no doubt come to the question: Where do I find medical narration work? Medical voiceover artists either have an insatiable drive to learn more about the medical field or come from a firm background in life sciences. From either route, it’s never too late to pursue medical narration voice over work. If you have that passion for the life sciences, it may be the niche for you. As a professional voiceover artist with more than 25 years of experience performing medical narration, I felt it fitting to impart some of my knowledge.
Where to Look for Medical Narration Work
If you’ve just begun your journey into the field of medical voiceover, but have no idea where to start looking for work, this list will hopefully give you some direction. While the field of medical narration is constantly growing, and expanding with every new scientific breakthrough, the places to look for work largely remain the same.
- Hospitals
- Manufacturers of Medical Equipment and Products
- Medical Education Organizations
- Pharmaceutical Companies
- Pay-to-Play Sites
Hospitals
Hospitals and health care systems (of hospitals) are a great place to begin your career as a medical voice artist. They constantly produce in-house materials on procedures and updates both for staff and for patients. If you’ve ever had to undergo a medical procedure, you’ve no doubt seen a video introducing you to hospital protocols. Whether it’s a what to expect before a surgery sort of thing, or a post-op care instructional video, So if you’re looking to gain employment in medical narration, make sure to look into patient-facing videos as a source of inspiration. Voice actors can find a healthy body of work to rely on from the hospital industry.
Manufacturers of Medical Equipment
Another great source of potential voice work for a medical narrator are manufacturers of medical equipment. Whether it’s a course on how to operate a radiation machine, a surgical technique on the insertion of a pacemaker or instructions for setting up an IV drip, there will always be a need for medical equipment and device instructional narration because the technology we use is constantly being innovated.
Medical Education Organizations
As humanity grows and expands its knowledge, our collective discovery, expertise, and understanding of our medical information base grows with us – so too does the need for increasingly relevant medical eLearning programs. There’s no shortage of voiceover jobs in CME (continuing medical education) because they’re ideal for students and M.D ‘s alike. Medical eLearning can encompass everything from interactive online courses to podcasts to instructional animations and videos.
Pharmaceutical Companies
Pharmaceutical companies are an excellent source of medical voice work – recording course after course for pharmaceutical sales reps is what prompted my start in medical narration. And there are commercials. Where the manufacturer of the treatment talks directly to the consumer, letting us know about new drug possibilities. Often tagged with the obligatory medical-legal; that trademark shotgun burst of possible side-effects, warnings precautions streaming at the end. As long as there are new medications and vaccines being introduced to the market, there will be a need for this type of voiceover.
*Bonus* Pay to Play Medical Narration Work
While all of the potential sources for medical voice over work listed above deal with establishments and institutions and therefore are best approached directly, the pay-to-play sites are also an opportunity to make connections with medical content creators when they need your services most. Through auditions, you can also stay abreast of the trends and opportunities in not just the field of medical narration, but the greater market of voiceover in general.