Excellence in Communications via a Live Event or Stand-Alone Activity

Summary of work

Imagine what it is like to be a parent of a child with a rare disease. Lacking information. Desperately seeking a diagnosis that your healthcare professional is ill-equipped to give. Wanting answers about your child’s future.

A small organisation in the rare diseases movement, the Cambridge Rare Disease Network (CRDN) wants to change the reality for people impacted by rare diseases - many of them parents with young children. This is why CRDN established their stand-alone annual Summit meeting to connect, educate and, most importantly, forge collaborations that tap into the existing potential in this field.

By channelling the ‘Cambridge Cluster’ of scientific, technological and academic expertise, this milestone meeting in October 2016 acted as a catalyst by successfully inspiring cross-functional stakeholders to bridge the gap between academia, research, industry, healthcare and patient support groups. The meeting has served as a launch pad for a small community to do great things and has already set a new benchmark for effective collaborations, cemented relationships and fuelled nine new potentially life-changing ideas.

Judges' comments

This was a well organised Summit, containing key elements of public affairs and strategy. We saw evidence of good outcomes that met objectives. We liked the fact that they addressed the downside of cost issues and feel that there is more to follow.