Highly Commended
The "HeadSmart: be brain tumour aware" campaign
Summary of work
The HeadSmart – Be Brain Tumour Aware campaign aims to reduce the delays in diagnosis experienced by children and young people before they are diagnosed with a brain tumour in the UK.
To our knowledge, no-one has previously attempted to use an awareness campaign to tackle this disease-specific diagnostic delay in children. The project employs multiple methods to raise awareness and support clinical decision-making. It targets the public, specifically parents, carers and young people, to work in partnership with healthcare professionals to reach a diagnosis of a rare but extremely serious disease. Brain tumours are the most common cause of cancer-related deaths in children (one child every three days) and are associated with acquired disability, such as blindness, deafness, mobility problems and learning difficulties, in 2/3 of survivors. These outcomes are directly related to the time it takes to diagnose a tumour from symptom onset.
HeadSmart has been extremely successful: parent and healthcare professional awareness of brain tumours has increased markedly, and the time it takes to diagnose a child with a brain tumour has almost halved.
Judges’ comments
In a very difficult area, this team deployed a public health programme to help drive reductions in the time taken to diagnosis - a critical aspect in improving outcomes. Wide stakeholder support was fostered, and success was well-measured against some clearly defined objectives. All in all, it was a robust and clearly thought-out campaign which achieved some truly meaningful patient-centered results.
