Finalist
The facts about fasting during Ramadan
Summary of work
Merck Sharpe & Dohme (MSD)’s ‘The Facts About Fasting During Ramadan’ programme was the first global campaign by a pharmaceutical company to help the 50 million Muslims worldwide with diabetes. The patient education initiative was developed to address a critical unmet need after it was recognised that three quarters of Muslims with diabetes continue to fast every year during Ramadan, despite contrary advice from physicians and religious authorities.
2014 saw significant expansion as the campaign moved up a gear to specifically drive patient activation, building on the awareness and education delivered by the initial years’ campaigns. A qualitative evaluation was carried out in the form of focus groups to secure understanding of the local impact, as well as patient behaviour/physician dialogue. Campaign reach has built year-on-year with an outstanding 5.1 million people reached across the globe in 2014, making it MSD’s most successful patient education initiative. The programme comprised traditional patient educational materials and media outreach, evolved with the addition of innovative education materials including: the world’s first mobile app to address the specific challenges faced by patients fasting during Ramadan; and a microsite hosting a series of diabetes-friendly recipes, playing to new insight regarding weight management during Ramadan.
Judges’ comments
Another entry tackling a difficult and very serious topic area and they should be congratulated on taking it on. We were impressed by the way it crossed boundaries and achieved such a high level of uptake from many countries - never an easy thing to accomplish.
