CHONDROMETRICS EXPANDS ITS MEDIA TEAM

Chondrometrics began engaging with social media only recently. In March 2024, we had around 250 followers on LinkedIn — today, that number has grown to over 2,500. Most of our posts focus on sharing updates from scientific conferences, workshops, project meetings, and newly published journal articles. These posts help keep the academic and industry community and our own operational team informed about our ongoing publication activities and achievements, and they also serve as a useful archive of links to related projects and publications.

Recognizing the growing importance of visual communication, Chondrometrics’ executive management decided earlier this year to expand its media team by bringing on a specialist in creating infographics and visual abstracts — concise visual summaries that clearly and concisely convey key messages from scientific work. Unlike traditional posters, visuals simplify complex ideas and make them more engaging and accessible, even for broader audiences. While infographics can cover a wide range of topics, visual abstracts focus on distilling the core message of scientific papers or studies into visual form.

To identify the optimal person for this role, we launched a call for freelance applicants on LinkedIn. Interested individuals were invited to submit a visual abstract based on a specific journal paper selected by the Chondrometrics team. This approach ensured a fair and consistent comparison across applicants. The five submissions we received are listed below, along with the associated reference papers (alphabetical order by last name):

• Benjamin Brigant (Norway) – PubMed 39460605
• Mick Girdwood (Australia) – PubMed 39022226
• Samra Sardar (Denmark) – PubMed 39230576
• Antonia Schumann (Germany) – PubMed 36576026
• Stephanie Tamer (Australia) – PubMed 39992574

All five applicants submitted their visuals on time, and each proposal was creative and well executed (see composite figure below).

A jury composed of the Chondrometrics board of owners and the operational team reviewed all entries. The winning design was submitted by Mick Girdwood from Melbourne, whose visual (No 2) was felt to stand out for its clarity, structure, and visual appeal. Mick will now create several color variations to offer different template options and will go on to produce visual summaries of our upcoming journal publications.

Antonia Schumann, a medical student from Berlin, also delivered an impressive entry (No 4) and finished a close second. In her CV, she highlighted additional expertise in web design, social media strategy, podcast/video production, and digital platforms — a compelling combination of skills. As a result, we invited her to join Chondrometrics as a Media Manager, where she will contribute to a wide range of strategic communication and outreach projects.

We are excited to welcome Mick and Antonia to the team and are confident that their creativity and fresh perspective will inject new energy into Chondrometrics’ public presence and corporate identity. We also would like to thank Benjamin, Samra, and Stephanie for their great work and submission.

A composite image of all five visual submissions is shown below, with numbered labels corresponding to the names above.