Campaign type
Professional education; building bridges between healthcare professionals (HCPs) and industry
Campaign title
Open Book on Growth: Charting Child Growth - the Key to Later Health?
Brief
A quarter of three year olds are overweight. Identifying weight problems at an early age is critical to ensuring healthy children. Yet in a survey, almost half of health visitors, the main health professionals with responsibility for weighing and monitoring growth, did not feel confident to measure child weight accurately*.
The Infant & Toddler Forum, a professional educational forum, identified that outcomes could only be improved by strengthening HCPs’ ability to use weight measurement as a diagnostic tool. They commissioned Say to help meet this knowledge gap.
Solution
Say worked with the Forum to develop the ‘Open Book on Growth’, an online educational tutorial. Key professional bodies were consulted and involved at various stages, ensuring their buy-in and endorsement. Open Book on Growth was unveiled at a conference at the Royal Society of Medicine, attended by leading HCPs and journalists who spread the word across their professional networks.
Result
As a result, experts affirmed support for the Open Book boosting the Forum’s credibility. This reflected positively on Nutricia, the infant food manufacturer which supports the Forum with an educational grant. Over 300 healthcare professionals attended study days covering growth measurement; 80% said they would use the study materials in daily practice. 1300 HCPs registered on the Open Book on Growth website underlining the strength of demand for this type of information.
Client verdict
“Say was instrumental in the creation and dissemination of an educational resource that is highly valued among its target audience and is currently being recommended as best practice to be implemented across the UK.” Nutricia
*Monitoring growth in the early years – survey by the Infant and Toddler Forum 2008 in association with www.healthvisitors.com