University of California, San Francisco

Learn how UCSF uses MediaValet to enable education and health science.
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Who is University of California, San Francisco? 

UCSF, or University of California, San Francisco, is the leading university dedicated exclusively to the health sciences.

From genomics and immunology to specialty care for women and children, UCSF brings together the world’s leading experts in nearly every area of health. They are home to five Nobel laureates who have advanced the understanding of cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, aging and stem cells.

Location:

California, SF

Industry:

Higher Education

Company size:

Enterprise

Joined MediaValet:

2020

Features:

Branded Portals


The Challenges

The 5-person communications team in the UCSF Neurosurgery Department is tasked with highlighting the accomplishments and activities of the department, a group of several hundred faculty, residents, nurses, researchers and staff. One of the ways the team carries out this task is by managing the department’s website and social media platforms.


The department was growing so the communication team needed to expand their social media presence, but their assets were not very accessible, and the team was struggling to manage things effectively.

The Results 

5 years ago, the UCSF Neurosurgery Department implemented their DAM, playfully called HIPPO – short for hippocampus (the part of the brain responsible for long-term memory)! Since then, the communications team has accomplished:

  • Meticulous record keeping and precise connection of patient consents form with relevant assets,
  • Seamless collaboration with other communications departments across the university,
  • Effective distribution that doesn’t compromise sensitive information, and
  • Innovative repurposing of assets for educational purposes.
Todd Dubnicoff UCSF

Todd Dubnicoff

Visual Communication Specialist, UCSF


The Challenge

Assets, Assets, Everywhere

The team was in the midst of a growth spurt and simultaneously trying to manage an evolving social media presence, more communications requirements, and a department that was spread across the city and the wider San Francisco Bay Area.

Assets were scattered across team members’ hard drives, on premise systems, and other cloud-based management solutions. In other words, they were everywhere but nowhere accessible.

Todd and his team needed a better, more centralized library and found their solution in a MediaValet DAM.

The Use Case

An Inter-Departmental Knowledge Base

The primary user of the DAM is for the Communications Team to share and distribute content to different teams within the department, UCSF proper, social media, and across the website.

Todd’s team has used their MediaValet DAM to stand as the central hub or knowledge base for digital assets including social media and website assets, photos, illustrations, templates, educational and administrative content.

The DAM has become like a brain (pun intended!) for the neurosurgery department, storing lots of information that we can access for many different uses!” 
Todd Dubnicoff
Visual Communication Specialist, UCSF

The DAM is used in three ingenious ways:

An administrative filing cabinet

Todd has implemented custom user groups to ensure that teams across the department can use the DAM where necessary (without compromising sensitive content). The admin team that support the faculty can access the DAM for headshots and logos and other needs without having to ask!

An educational vault

The DAM includes videos and illustrations of surgical procedures which the neurosurgery residents, students and even faculty can access for surgical training and presentations.

Among the video collection are patient education videos which the department can share with prospective patients or their referring doctors to help them understand available medical options.

An historical archive

By storing the archive of work from the neurosurgery department’s state-of-the-art clinical services and basic research programs, Todd’s team has provided a historical record of the department’s pioneering work.

The Key Features

True Efficiency and Security

The team at UCSF has used their MediaValet DAM to incorporate truly efficient workflows within and external to the neurosurgery department. They’ve leaned into three key MediaValet features to achieve both true efficiency and strong security.

Branded Portals

Todd’s team has created several “mini websites” that have become essential for sharing assets with people who don’t use HIPPO or the DAM.

When faculty members ask for content to share during lectures or presentations, the team has created a Branded Portal for explainer videos and animations and cut these into smaller clips for ease of explanation.

I was asked for content by a professor to use for an upcoming lecture and was able to share exactly what they needed within seconds!”

Related Assets

The team at UCSF is using Related Assets in a truly exceptional way – for security and compliance.

To take photos or video during a surgery or procedure, UCSF must have a signed patient consent form. Previously they had paper forms but now, they upload the form to the DAM and connect it with the photos and footage from the surgery through Related Assets!

The team then applies custom permission rules to user groups to ensure that only authorized people have access to this content.

This has saved so much time tracking down consent forms. Now, when I search the DAM for a specific surgery photos or video – I know if the person has consented and can quickly share and distribute content where needed!”

*NOTE* To store patient information in the DAM, UCSF needed a HIPAA compliant DAM – MediaValet is the #1 DAM on the market for security and is vigilant about compliancy and security requirements.

Adobe Connector (CI HUB)

When it comes to distributing customized content quickly, the team at UCSF makes use of the Adobe Connector (CI HUB). The team logs into PhotoShop to make adjustments to their flyer templates and can drag and drop the relevant assets directly from MediaValet.

Adobe CI Hub Connector
Using the Adobe Connector, I save those tedious steps of downloading and uploading again to make for a really seamless experience – it’s true efficiency.”
The Results

Accessible Education

UCSF has used their MediaValet DAM to implement innovative ways to not just manage a huge library of images, but fastidiously support the neurosurgery department through smart governance, streamlined asset distribution and sharing, and intelligent asset reuse.

Emotionally speaking there’s a peace of mind to know that all our assets are centralized and curated, and in terms of accomplishing tasks and projects there’s such a level of efficiency we couldn’t have achieved without MediaValet!”

Meticulous Record Keeping

Using the Related Asset feature to connect patient consent forms to relevant content has enabled the team to not just stay compliant but truly organized.

Limiting the user groups that can access this content supports true security of sensitive information and content.

Seamless Collaboration

The MediaValet DAM is under ownership of the neurosurgery department but has positively impacted communication efficiencies, social media presence, educational content distribution and access, and collaboration across the entire organization.

Secure Assets

The team at UCSF had to find a DAM with up-to-standard security and HIPAA compliance levels which really narrowed down their options.

With MediaValet they not only check off their security requirements and ensure safekeeping of sensitive materials and information, but they’ve implemented fastidious workflows that align with these compliance measures.

Smart Asset Repurposing

Todd’s team have uploaded historic and current content from the neurosurgery department to be further used as communications, social media, and educational content.

Repurposing videos and creating clips that are housed in specific Brand Portals, the team has not only streamlined access to this information but ensured its safekeeping for further, future research and learning.

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