Patient education through newspaper advertorials

More than 30 Lakhs people read The Times of India. It is a very powerful medium to reach out to people. When we were offered an opportunity to write the advertorial for a newspaper, we were overwhelmed with the kind of impact we were going to build.

Looking back in the history, the first newspaper in India was circulated in 1780 under the editorship of James Augustus Hickey, named 'The Bengal Gazette'. Started in 1881, Tilak's Kesari became one of the leading media to propagate the message of a freedom movement.

And there we were, contributing to the most epic and strongest media in the history, we had an opportunity to be published in Times of India.

The topic was patient education. This was not an advertisement, we were not selling anything. We were publishing the information that people will read and take informed decision about their health.

AIt was a big responsibility, but as long as it is about patient education we were confident about our approach. We were assigned a topic, we went back and did a detailed background research. We then came up with the concepts for presenting the topic that will help us to reach out many people.

We built a structure and went for a meeting with the Doctors. These were head of the departments and few of the best doctors in India. We were able to receive valuable inputs from them; from the way they manage a particular disease condition to the different complications while expecting the desired outcome. With their help, we could get the grass level information about the problems real doctors and real patients are facing. Talking to all those highly intellectual and passionate doctors was enriching.

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