Tiny Docs

We make Health Caretoons—animated cartoons that teach kids about their health in a fun, relatable, and easy-to-understand way.

Patient engagement has been called “the breakthrough drug of the century,” and engagement requires education. Many patients—especially children—are not provided with information to take ownership of their health.

Data strongly suggest that even pediatric patients experience better healthcare outcomes when they understand causes and treatments for their health challenges.

The technology already exists to support healthcare professionals in communicating with children and families in a way that is accessible and meaningful: cartoons.

Stories bridge numerous divides; instead of being scared and overwhelmed by a medical visit, kids and families can actively and confidently participate in the process.

Tiny Docs makes Health Caretoons—animated cartoons that teach kids about their health in a fun, relatable, and easy-to-understand way. Our library covers medical procedures, chronic conditions, and general wellness.

Featuring our stars Dr. Patches and Nurse Scrubs, we aim to change gender and racial stereotypes while we educate and entertain our audiences. Every Tiny Docs video is vetted by our advisory board of pediatricians, child life specialists, and pediatric nurses to ensure that all of the information is medically accurate and beneficial.

Frontline health workers and hospitals consistently express their need for education geared towards pediatric patients; TinyDocs answers the call through our creation of trustworthy Health Caretoons and our commitment to medical integrity. We plan to become financially sustainable through a freemium subscription licensing model.

Our goal is to foster a billion smiles in a hundred languages. Ultimately, we are a tool to empower frontline health workers as they create happier, healthier lives.

Our solution to the communication gap between frontline health workers and patients is not a sophisticated algorithm or an incredible new technology: instead, it's cartoons. Storytelling is a simple yet elegant way to educate children and parents about health.

Tiny Docs is designed to do in a frontline health context what Pixar does so masterfully at the movie theater.

Our characters are also innovative in that Dr. Patches is a female doctor and Nurse Scrubs is a male nurse, challenging gender stereotypes and providing role models for young patients.

Technology is integral to scaling healthcare education that resonates with kids.

By supporting health communication in a medium that kids understand and can readily engage with, frontline health workers are freed up to focus on the unique contributions they can make for their patients in the moment with their expertise.

We can be an impactful and cost-effective complement to the diagnoses, treatments, and consistent communication that frontline health workers are tasked with each day.

Further utilizing technology, Tiny Docs will continue to provide blogs from leading pediatricians, interactive games to enhance knowledge, and a forum for parents to connect.

One upcoming milestone is releasing our pilot chronic health episode “Ready, Set, Breathe!” that focuses on asthma. This episode will help us deepen our relationship with school districts and other organizations that are crucial to advancing frontline community health strategies.

In the next 12 months we are also producing versions of each Tiny Docs episode in Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, and other languages requested by our partners. While we eventually plan for each episode’s dialogue to be spoken in these respective languages, our intermediate solution is to release versions of each episode that include culturally responsive subtitle translations.

Success blends process with product. For example, we are honing our list of quality-control protocols—such as advisory board consultations on scripts, and focus groups with students—to ensure particular attention to detail in the language we use in communicating with children.

Additionally, we define impact with an equity lens. This includes providing discounted and free subscriptions to health justice organizations serving communities with increased barriers to healthcare access and quality.

As a for-profit, we also have financial targets. However, our priorities are content quality and stakeholder relationships because these drive the scale that is ultimately needed for significant returns.

We are focused on reaching our target customers (children’s hospitals, pediatricians, etc.) as well as our target beneficiaries (children and their families) to build meaningful relationships with them.

Partnerships with healthcare facilities and frontline heath workers are essential to our success. They give us a high-impact distribution channel and add legitimacy to what we are building.

We have also been focusing on social media and content marketing with a lighter emphasis on paid advertising, including PPC and static placement on appropriate websites and applications. The Tiny Docs blog features posts written by our characters and guest posts from leading pediatricians.

TinyDocs has educated 10,000 kids and an additional 10,000 caregivers about their health in a fun, relatable, and easy-to-understand way.

Our pilot episode "Shiver Me Tonsils" has been viewed more than 9,800 times, so we estimate that at least 9,800 kids and at least an additional 9,800 caregivers (e.g. family member or frontline health worker) have been impacted.

Our pilot wellness video "Science of Hugs" has been more than viewed 100 times, so we estimate that at least 200 kids and at least an additional 200 caregivers have been impacted.

Each year, more than 32 million U.S. children are chronically sick. More than 6 million of them—including at least a million children younger than 4—undergo surgery or other health procedures (British Journal of Anasthesia: https://academic.oup.com/bja/article/105/suppl_1/i61/236141 and the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/26/health/researchers-call-for-more-study-of-anesthesia-risks-to-young-children.html).

Tiny Docs meets kids where they are—especially in situations where fear, confusion, and anxiety are the overwhelming emotions.

Our animated adventures acknowledge that it is OK to feel scared, and they help inspire courage in children facing adversity. Interventions designed to increase bravery promote resilience more effectively than interventions aimed at reducing fear (Brené Brown: https://brenebrown.com/).

Our experiences and skills complement each other, while our culture builds upon shared values. Our team intentionally includes diversity of race, gender, nationality, disciplines, and sectors.

Sunny is a lawyer who excels at community outreach and public speaking. Dustin, coming from the healthcare consulting and education worlds, manages our creative direction. Greg contributes to marketing and partnerships with a background in social entrepreneurship.

In bootstrapping, we shoulder many responsibilities typically executed by larger animation studios. Web development is done in-house by award-winning graphic designer Meredith and coding savant Vivek. And lead artist Aixa ensures Tiny Docs has a consistent look.

Currently, we have a Netflix-type business model wherein we sell annual subscriptions that provide access to our full content library. Utilizing a freemium approach, we will always have a significant amount of free wellness-focused content on our site to engage new potential paying customers and offer baseline support for organizations and individuals who are not in a position to pay for our premium, medical-procedure-oriented content.

We are also exploring how we can monetize through smart partnerships. Tiny Docs could become a multi-billion dollar media-education company as we plan on making thousands of videos that reach millions of kids in dozens of languages.

We are applying to Solve because frontline health workers, kids, and families inspire us.

Pediatrician Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick says: “When we struggle to ensure understanding of complex medical information, Tiny Docs, through it's relatable and engaging health messaging, can help fill a void in the health literacy landscape.”

Parent Jackie Perrell told us: “When my daughter was six, she was preparing for a tonsillectomy. Having done ear tubes already, I thought she’d be game for another surgery, but she was super nervous.... She watched ‘Shiver Me Tonsils’ multiple times leading up to the surgery, and it helped psych her up.”

Through a combination of storytelling, animation, and technology, our goal is to foster a billion smiles in a hundred languages. One key barrier is raising seed capital that we can invest in creating dozens of new animated episodes available in multiple languages; hiring additional team members to grow sales; and launching digital marketing campaigns to raise awareness and drive sales.

Another key barriers to adoption is limited awareness. In our current bootstrapping phase, our outreach has relied heavily on old-fashioned grit and hustle. To this end, we have developed a referral incentives program and cross-promotion initiatives with other social impact organizations.