Malecare is a national cancer support and advocacy organization led by Darryl Mitteldorf, an oncologist and social worker who has spent decades helping patients live longer and happier lives. What began 30 years ago as a response to his father’s prostate cancer diagnosis has grown into one of the largest cancer organizations in the United States. “I saw it as an opportunity for revenge against the disease,” Darryl said.
At the center of Malecare’s work is Cancer Academy, a digital education platform built to provide cancer patients and their loved ones with clear, practical guidance. “Cancer Academy is a platform for all cancer patients and all people who love cancer patients,” Darryl said. Through short, focused videos, the platform aims to restore confidence, reduce fear, and help people better navigate treatment, symptoms, and everyday challenges.
Over time, Malecare realized that its educational vision required thousands of videos, each carefully crafted, emotionally supportive, and medically precise. But with a team consisting entirely of social workers and psychologists, producing that volume of high-quality content felt impossible.
“Malecare’s Cancer Academy platform requires thousands of videos,” Darryl said. “Prior to HeyGen, the struggle was creating thousands at scale by a team of six people, all of whom are social workers or psychologists, none of whom have video production backgrounds.”
Everything changed when the team discovered HeyGen. The platform enabled them to create empathetic, accurate educational videos at scale without specialized filming expertise or expensive production resources.
Overcoming production barriers to reach millions of patients
Before HeyGen, Malecare struggled to reach the full community of patients who needed information. “We have 120,000 attending our support groups. There are millions of people diagnosed with cancer. So we're missing a lot of people,” Darryl said.
Reaching those patients required a level of video production the team simply couldn’t achieve. They needed repeatable presenters, clear delivery, and high-volume output, but live recording was slow, costly, and dependent on outside contributors. “We don't have to wait for studio time or for the original speakers to show up. We don't have to hire highly skilled people,” Darryl said. “I'm a social worker, and I'm making videos at the same level or close to the same level as professionals who have 20 or 30 years of experience.”
Without the ability to produce consistently and quickly, many patients lacked access to reliable answers. The team often heard from people watching videos in the middle of the night, frightened and unsure whether their symptoms were normal.
“Whenever they're sweating at night and wondering, what am I going to say to my doctor? Or will I live through the night? They could look at a HeyGen-generated video and learn that the medication they're taking does, in fact, have a side effect. You're going to survive the night, and you'll enjoy tomorrow.”
For Malecare, helping patients feel reassured in those moments became central to their mission and the reason they needed a scalable, dependable solution.
Embracing AI to scale education with clarity, confidence, and care
The team’s first experience with HeyGen was what Darryl calls a “magic moment.” In a single day, working from his living room, they achieved something that previously felt impossible.
“Three of us were sitting in my living room, and at the end of the day, we made 15 videos. It was like, ‘how did we do that?’” Darryl said. “Fifteen absolutely worthy, publishable videos.”
That moment showed them what was possible. HeyGen allowed them to expand production beyond just a few contributors and empower every team member to create strong, consistent video content. “We've passed out that workflow to individuals,” Darryl explained. “Psychologists could comfortably make 5 to 10 videos in a day.”
Finding the right voice and tone was equally important. Malecare observed that cancer patients responded best to approachable presenters, especially those who felt like high school science teachers. After testing dozens of real presenters, HeyGen enabled the team to replicate those warm, reassuring voices digitally.
“We can actually imbue each avatar with a personality,” Darryl said. “We could mimic the same high school science teachers that we were using as live people.”
Patients often cannot distinguish which videos feature real presenters and which use avatars, and in many cases, people connect even more deeply with the digital versions. One focus group participant shared an insight that has stayed with Darryl ever since:
“I know that's an avatar. You've told me it's an avatar, but I feel like I can have a deeper conversation with them about the very topic that they're presenting to me. And even now, I could feel tears coming to my face thinking of how we know we've succeeded in connecting with people and making them feel at ease, reducing their anxiety, and helping them to actually hear and take in really tough information.”
For Darryl, this emotional response demonstrated that HeyGen wasn’t just enabling scale, it was enhancing empathy. “If there was just one thing to say about HeyGen, it's that you're going to have not just control, but you're going to have the ability to use your creativity and to use your heart in creating conversations for people you've never met.”
Achieving measurable impact and restoring patient confidence
HeyGen has become a foundational part of Malecare’s workflow, enabling the team to create content with precision and agility.
“I have the ability to create digital education that we can metric out, know which part of a video needs adjustment, and then re-edit it. You can only do that when you have digital control over the performance of the avatar,” Darryl said.
HeyGen also makes the work emotionally and creatively sustainable. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by the idea of editing, Darryl describes a sense of ease. “The editing studio lets me not have to think about the process of editing. I'm not editing, I'm creating,” Darryl said. “That's a remarkable feeling to have.”
Most importantly, patient outcomes are improving. Malecare relies on validated instruments to measure changes in patient knowledge, preparedness, and activation. “All of our numbers exceeded our expectations,” Darryl said. “There are very few things that you could say achieve that as rapidly as we've been able to demonstrate.”
For Darryl and his team, HeyGen is more than a tool; it’s a way to meet patients with clarity, comfort, and hope at the moments they need it most. “It’s like an angel came down through their iPhone and into their head,” Darryl said. “And that's really wonderful.”
