Today, Amanda Sellers shared the results of our global awareness campaign at the 2010 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) fourth annual National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing and Media. The "Find the Other 150" campaign "found” 24 percent more children with a rare, fatal, and rapid aging disease called Progeria, a disease affecting less than .01% of the world’s population. In creating and carrying out the campaign for The Progeria Research Foundation, Spectrum collaborated with partner firms in 10 countries through GLOBALHealthPR, the largest independent public relations group dedicated to health communications worldwide. Reaching out to media and medical professionals with culturally relevant and strategic communications methods, as well as using online tools such as the campaign website (www.findtheother150.org), the awareness generated more than 20 inquiries to PRF about potential children with Progeria in six months. From these inquiries, 13 new children with Progeria were identified from seven countries, increasing the total number of children known to have Progeria worldwide to 67 (a 24 percent increase). Watch below to hear more about the campaign from Amanda Selllers and click here to view the campaign poster and press release.
Archive for the ‘Public Health’ Category
Kownacki
Health in Your Hands, Literally
Friday, August 13th, 2010Last week I had a great opportunity to contribute an article to Examiner.com titled, “The Intersect between Media and Mobile,” where I dissected the ways that mobile devices have impacted the flow of information in society – both generally and specifically in the marketing and news industries.
The truth is, the growth in mobile technology is affecting every industry based on the access that it allows; and beyond the cliché, it puts information right in the palm of your hand. It’s become a popular way to track how many doctors are using smart phones as a part of their daily routines, and the number is steadily on the rise, with 94 percent of doctors reporting use in one recent study. Mobile provides the advantage of never having to stop when it comes to needing information, whether that means referencing an encyclopedia or consulting with a colleague.
LaFauce
Twitter Can Save Your Life Part 2
Thursday, August 12th, 2010
Several years ago when I was at The Social Times I wrote a blog post about how Twitter could save your life as a multi-channel messaging tool. If you take a second to look at the comment section of that post you can see there was some back and forth about the usefulness of Twitter (@Martin Ringlein).
Why am I bringing up an article I wrote almost 3 years ago? Today Susan Kinzie wrote a great piece about how innovative developers are starting to create tools to use Twitter as a method for finding people in distress. The article talks about an online survey the Red Cross conducted that reports that more and more people are using social media as a tool to find help.
While the article wraps up by saying that in an emergency the best thing to do is dial 911, it is great to see people starting to explore the ways in which multichannel tools can help out. Imagine tying in my Foursquare, Twitter, Ping.fm and Facebook page into some sort of Geo-Targeted/911 connection tool that would tell all my followers where I was, what was wrong and how they could help.
As an avid lover of tech it is exciting to see these developments coming to fruition. Do you have any examples of folks using social media or developing social media tools to help during a disaster? Let me know.
Spear
The Debate Over the Use of Antibiotics in Animal Agriculture
Monday, July 26th, 2010
Last week I traveled to Capitol Hill to hear testimony before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce regarding the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture. After making my way through a crowd of PETA advocates and security, I entered the Rayburn Building and was shocked to find that there was already a line down the hall-I knew then I was in for an interesting afternoon.
So what was all the fuss about? The House Subcommittee on Health hearing on July 14th was focused on issues surrounding the industrial farming practice of routinely incorporating low dose concentrations of antibiotics in the feed and water of healthy food animals for growth promotion, feed efficiency, and other uses where the animal has not been exposed to disease. This is a topic my colleagues have discussed on the FSB in the past.
Mandel
OB/GYN 2.0
Monday, July 26th, 2010I recently read a USA Today entitled "Some doctors join Facebook, Twitter; others wary," which has sparked another debate about health care going digital. Dr. Jeff Livingston, a certified obstetrician and gynecologist, is using social media to promote his practice, MacArthur OB/GYN, and create a public platform for a subject matter that quite often is stigmatized as too confidential and personal to discuss. As he notes in the article, he isn't publishing personal health information online, but instead shares helpful articles and advice that he believes would benefit his followers and fans. 
Heaven
Gaming That Changes Lives, Part I
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010I was very intrigued when I first heard about the "Games for Change" effort that is taking shape in the United States. Games that don't just entertain but educate and foster understanding and social change - I thought it was a fascinating idea. But when I sat in on the "Games for Change & Health Workshop: Brainstorming and Game Design Jam for HIV/AIDS" for Digital Capital Week, I was floored. The workshop, hosted by Spectrum, aimed to educate attendees on HIV/AIDS and "edu-gaming." And, in doing so, supply them with the knowledge to conceptualize video games that could help a variety of audiences better understand HIV/AIDS in Washington, D.C. and around the world. You can watch the live stream of the event in our DC Week video archives.
Two of our panel speakers - David Phillips, an information governance contractor at The National Institutes of Health, and Justin Goforth, RN, Director of Medical Adherence Unit and STD Services, Whitman Walker Clinic - were extremely educated on the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Before delving into the gaming aspect, they introduced the hard hitting facts of the virus. After all, we need to know the subject matter before we could brainstorm about the game. (more...)
