public health

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Last week, Frannie Marmorstein and I were thrilled to head up to New York City to attend the PR News Platinum Awards Luncheon. We attended on behalf of Spectrum and GLOBALHealthPR, our partnership of international health care communications specialists, as a finalist in the “Pro Bono” category for our work on The Progeria Research Foundation’s (PRF) “Find the Other 150 Campaign”. And we won! This recognition, among the best of the best in the industry, was an honor for everyone involved in the campaign, and hopefully it will inspire others in the industry to leverage global collaboration for a cause they are passionate about.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Progeria, it is an extremely rare, rapid aging disease that causes children to age prematurely. Children with Progeria die of heart attacks or strokes at an average age of 13 years, so time is not on our side as we work to identify children around the world.

But this award isn’t the first time an important win has come out of this campaign. Every time a child is identified as a result of the campaign, it’s a win: a win for the child, because he or she will get the unique medical care he or she needs, a win for the child’s family, and a win for PRF, because these children help to advance research toward treatments and the cure for Progeria. We’ve identified 26 to date, a 48% increase in just two years (and 2 more since we submitted our entry for the award)!

We’ve blogged about the “Find the Other 150” campaign before. But the results keep getting better and better. In October 2009, only 54 children living with Progeria had been identified around the world. But experts believed that another 150 children around the world had not yet been identified or diagnosed. GLOBALHealthPR approached PRF about launching a global awareness campaign to search for unidentified children with Progeria. When the campaign began, PRF’s medical director said that if even ONE child was identified, the campaign would be a success. No one expected that we would be so successful so quickly.

So here we are two years and 26 children later (now totaling 80 children around the world with Progeria), and our campaign is going strong. Receiving the PR News Platinum Award at last week’s luncheon was a wonderful reward for our great work. But this campaign is nowhere close to finished. We will continue to work with our GLOBALHealthPR partners until we accomplish what we set out to do – Find the Other 150. And every time a new child is found and gets the support they need, that’s a win for us.

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If you work for a health-oriented company that offers products or services internationally, you might be interested to know that our GLOBALHealthPR partnership expanded significantly in the past year, with exciting new access and capabilities in four countries among Latin America, Europe and Asia. Herewith our new names and faces, transmitting the best savvy in important health care markets around the world.

blog1PR Partners (PRP) is a Mexico City-based, independent, full-service public relations agency founded in 2000 by Brenda Morales (left) and Paola de la Barreda. Mexico claims the 13th largest nominal gross domestic product, ranks 11th largest by purchasing power parity (PPP), and also boasts the largest GDP per capita in Latin America, according to the International Monetary Fund. Latest official estimates report a population of 111 million, making Mexico the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world.

With a sharp focus on healthcare, corporate and consumer communications, PRP provides clients with strategic communications, media relations, media training, crisis communications and below-the-line/direct-to-consumer strategy services in Mexico.

blog2Further south in Brazil, Regiane Monteiro and Priscila Sérvulo direct Tino – Projetos em Comunicação. Founded in 2006, Tino has become a leader in health communications in Brazil. This country is the largest national economy in Latin America, the world’s tenth largest economy at market exchange rates and the ninth largest in PPP, according to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The population of Brazil stood at approximately 190 million in 2008.

At Sao Paolo-based Tino, Regiane and Priscila offer more than 20 years of experience in healthcare communications as health editors and reporters in top tier national publications in Brazil.

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Seyhan Ayel Girit is co-founder and general manager of OptimumBrand, launched in 1996, and now a leading Istanbul, Turkey-based agency with a special unit (OptimumHealth) dedicated to healthcare communications.

Turkey has the world’s 15th largest GDP (PPP) and 17th largest nominal GDP. The population of Turkey amounts to 72.5 million, based on 2009 data.

OptimumBrand shapes its services around three disciplines: strategy, communication and interaction. The firm serves an important market as well as “bridge” for GLOBALHealthPR from the Middle East to Europe.

blog4As with Turkey, GLOBALHealthPR welcomed India to our partnership in January 2010. Priti Mohile (above) and Mr. Dinesh Chindarkar co-founded Mediamedic Communications in Mumbai in 2000. With an estimated 1.2 billion people, India ranks second among countries in population, and first among democracies. India is the world’s 12th largest economy, and now ranks fourth in purchasing power.

Mediamedic is dedicated to healthcare communications across the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and health foods sector.

I extend a healthy welcome to Priti, Dinesh, Seyhan, Regiane, Priscila, Brenda and Paola; our new partners from India, Turkey, Brazil and Mexico; respectively.

Now in 12 countries and 21 cities throughout four continents, GLOBALHealthPR continues to expand geographically as our partners set higher standards to offer you the best in health communications worldwide. I encourage you to call any of us to help you address your audiences, wherever they live.