Content that amplified the patient voice, engaged stakeholders and delivered free, earned media

John’s Story follows one patient’s honest struggle with type-2 diabetes from denial and hidden chocolate wrappers to a renewed sense of control and health-enablement, driven by family support, positive lifestyle change.

This three-part series was shaped around authentic and relatable patient, family and stakeholder experiences and insights, and delivered high-impact and empathic content that not only resonated across the health system but also generated major free, earned `media exposure with Mail Health, appearing for three consecutive weeks on its homepage’s main feature and billed as ‘the video every diabetic needs to watch.’

Created for, and sponsored, by Roche, John’s Story became a compelling tool for driving awareness using an authentic patient voice and the story also served as a catalyst for advocacy and stakeholder-engagement across HCP networks, national disease groups, charities and patient communities.

FIXING US collects extensive footage, enabling what we capture to become more authentic and more useful for our clients. As part of our deliverables, we offer Authentic Intelligence™ to help clients gain an unlimited number of insights and useful information to support their communications, research and insights-generation.

In the following example, we demonstrate how our production team ensure they capture all of the rich content as well as how any member of a client’s team can be given an opportunity to ask any questions to any footage that is filmed – helping them to not just immediately understand what has been captured but to be able to have direct access to that footage at any time to support other needs they make have across communications, research, insights-generation and planning.

Q. Who does the patient most rely on for helping them to manage their diabetes? 

A. To answer this question accurately, I'll need to search the footage for information about the patient's support system and their interactions with others regarding their diabetes management. Let's start by looking for relevant data. Based on the information provided, we can identify who the patient most relies on for managing their diabetes. Let's analyze the key points:  

1. Family Support: The patient clearly states that their primary support system is at home: "I've got lots of support at home from all of my girls and my wife as well. I can't really single out any one of them." This indicates that the patient's family, particularly his wife and daughters, play a crucial role in helping manage his diabetes. The family's involvement includes: - Monitoring food intake - Reminding about medication - Encouraging exercise 

2. Self-Reliance: The patient also emphasizes their tendency towards self-management: "My support is at home. I support my family and I tend to do things on my own anyway. I go to the gym, I go on my own, I don't go to anyone else. I can spend a couple of hours at the gym. When I go for a run or a cycle, that's on my own. I don't need anyone, obviously, playing squash, I need something to play. But most of the time, I don't need anyone else.” This suggests that while the patient values family support, they also take significant personal responsibility for managing their condition. 

3. Healthcare Professionals: The patient mentions mixed experiences with healthcare professionals: "My experience of the healthcare professionals that I saw at the time was the people I saw in the hospital consultancy were a couple of them were very good. They was explaining how it worked and what was happening to me at the time. But outside of that, I don't think I've really had much support." The footage indicates that while some hospital consultants were helpful, ongoing support from healthcare professionals seems limited, especially for Type 2 diabetes. 

4. Extended Family Knowledge: The patient notes that one of his daughters works in a school and has some understanding of diabetes management due to her professional role, suggesting that some family members might have additional insights that contribute to the support system. 

5. Perceived Lack of External Support: A family member comments on the perceived lack of support for Type 2 diabetes patients compared to Type 1: "Is it always there? Unless you're type 1... I feel like, I don't know, type 1, maybe you get a lot more support." This reinforces the importance of the family's role in supporting the patient. 

Conclusion: The patient most relies on his immediate family, particularly his wife and daughters, for helping manage his diabetes. They provide day-to-day support, reminders, and encouragement. However, the patient also demonstrates a strong sense of self-reliance and takes personal responsibility for many aspects of his diabetes management, such as exercising independently. 

While healthcare professionals, especially hospital consultants, have played a role in explaining the condition and its management, they do not appear to be the primary ongoing source of support. The perceived lack of extensive external support for Type 2 diabetes patients further emphasizes the critical role that the patient's family plays in his diabetes management.