16 April 2009
SHO-ME your award
NHS City and Hackney's Sexual Health Team has won
the regional award for Innovative Health and Social Care Technology
in recognition of its highly successful SHO-me (Sexual Health
Online for North East London) awareness raising campaign.
The winning campaign was developed in partnership with Merchant
Healthcare Marketing, and included the conceptualisation and
development of the new SHO-me brand, designing and building the new
interactive SHO-me website and raising awareness and educating the
North East London population about sexual health services available
in the area and motivating them to be tested for sexually
transmitted infections (STIs).
The Health and Social Care Awards are run in partnership between
the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement and the Department
of Health, and recognise the development of innovative healthcare
technology that improves the delivery to patients, service users or
carers. The Awards have been running for eight years, highlighting
innovation and excellence across health and social care. The Awards
focus on the NHS, social services, voluntary, charity and
independent sectors and reward organisations that continually find
new ways to provide the best possible care to their local
population.
Amanda Douglas, Public Health Strategist for NHS City and
Hackney comments: "We are thrilled to have won this award. We
worked in close partnership with Merchant to deliver an outstanding
campaign. The results speak for themselves. Within the
first month the website attracted more than 3,500 unique visitors
and 5,200 people interacted with the Network through the integrated
campaign. We have since had a further 2,200 unique website visitors
every month. We entered the awards believing we had the potential
to win and we are very proud we were chosen out of all of the
Strategic Health Authorities (SHA) in London"
The launch of http://www.sho-me.nhs.uk/ was
communicated through an integrated marketing campaign comprising
public relations; leaflet distribution; outdoor advertising; and
the SHO-me.nhs.uk road show, a sexual health unit touring North
East London offering free sexual health checks and information on
sexual health and contraception. The campaign used a colourful
mobile unit, which included a private consultation room for
conducting Chlamydia, HIV and pregnancy tests, two on-board laptops
showing the website, and an interactive quiz with daily prize
incentives.