Winner
Fabry Academy Connect: An Online Rare Disease Medical Education Hub
Summary of work
Fabry disease (FD) is a rare inherited genetic disorder. Patients often wait many years to receive an accurate diagnosis, in part due to a lack of awareness among healthcare professionals (HCP). The Fabry Academy Connect (FAC) programme, through increased awareness and education, aims to help achieve two overarching goals: to reduce diagnostic delay and improve monitoring, management and treatment for patients via changes in HCP behaviour. Due to our in-depth knowledge of the needs of the FD clinical community, we created an online learning hub that hosts virtual FD medical education events and resources, with an aim to bring together the FD community.
Our objectives were to acquire a global audience, engage that audience with educational materials and events tailored to their unmet educational needs and share impactful information on best practice and recent developments in the field of FD. During the first year of FAC, 1,076 HCPs from 58 countries registered on the platform and more than 600 of them have actively engaged across multiple events and on-demand materials. A recent survey found that 92% of respondents had already changed their clinical practice because of knowledge gained through FAC, demonstrating the substantial impact that the programme is already having.
Judges’ comments
Sanofi and Lucid Group have produced a well-conceived, well executed initiative that appears to have a strong element of longevity in it. The judges thought the design and delivery of the campaign was effective, with some encouraging outcomes in terms of HCP knowledge/ behavioural intent. An excellent campaign driving awareness to an underserved and difficult disease area.
