Imagine not being able to stop eating once you start. Imagine feeling too ashamed to discuss this eating behavior with your physician. Imagine working up the courage to talk with your physician, only to see him get uncomfortable and tell you to eat less and exercise more. This is what patients with binge eating disorder face every day.Shire Pharmaceuticals aimed to change this. We knew HCPs not only did not understand BED, but their lack of understanding also led to judgment. This made an emotionally painful patient experience even harder. We created a disease state awareness campaign that educated HCPs on both the disorder, and those who suffer from it. This more holistic approach to the disorder ultimately gave HCPs the knowledge they needed to provide better care for their patients.

In order to maximize the opportunity to change HCP’s behavior, it was critical to educate the customers through both personal and non-personal initiatives. The BED website—an online resource for BED information launched in August. HCPs were driven to the site from both online drivers and print materials, with some of the top professional publications being Current Psychiatry, Clinical Psychiatry News, American Family Physician, JAMA Mini, and Family Practice News. Shire also engaged with HCPs through a direct mail series, live speaker programs, online web-exs, and congress attendance.

Shire also contracted Clinical Nurse Educators (CNEs) to start connecting with HCPs and building the groundwork with psychiatrists and PCPs in the field. The CNEs utilized the Core Educational Guide and DSM-5 Reference Card, as well as the BED Resource Kit, which included an HCP discussion guide, BED screener, and patient flashcard.

In testing, HCPs had a clear change of heart when presented with the concept. Their judgment gave way to empathy, as evidenced by verbatims such as:

• “I’m missing these patients.”

• “I need to bring this up.”

• “I need to break this cycle.”

• “I need to change how I talk to these patients.”

To date, bingeeatingdisorder.com/HCP has had 27,000 unique visitors. The average time spent on the site is 3 minutes and 30 seconds.