Cardiovascular disease is the No.1 killer of women: one in three women will die of it. This is due to decades of medical bias where women were excluded from clinical trials, which has meant the atypical signs of women’s heart attacks have been overlooked, because clinical data comes solely from male bodies. This knowledge gap is even wider in the Gulf region where coverage of the medical misdiagnosis of women's heart attacks is practically zero. Through the Mi[s]diagnosed campaign we were able to expose the medical gender data gap across the region. For the first time we were able to meaningfully create awareness to combat the gender data gap addressing the misrepresentation of Arabic women in clinical trials. As a result, Mis[s]diagnosed's story is helping Pharma and healthcare companies diversify their clinical trials and ensuring more inclusive treatment innovations via IPG Health's 'Trial for #ClincalEquality Initiative.

This campaign was especially important for the region, as from our research we know that since the 1990s there’s not been enough news to raise awareness of the misdiagnosis of women’s heart attacks here. We also had to overcome other hurdles as it can be difficult to get approvals from health authorities in certain countries in the MENA region prior to launching consumer awareness campaigns. Strict guidelines are in place to ensure communications do not instil fear or lean on negative connotations of a disease. So we carefully tailored our campaign not to overstep the mark but still give it enough power to change behaviour, raise awareness and shift the medical gender data bias.

Organon's brand purpose is to be 'Here for her health,' with a vision of a 'better and healthier every day for every woman'. So with this in mind, we set about tackling the issue of the mass misdiagnosis of women's heart attacks that's putting millions of women's lives at risk. Our brief was to find out the extent of this issue and then to expose the medical gender data gap. Once armed with this information our objective was to create mass awareness of the gap and educate women and HCP's across the Gulf region on the severity of this issue and encourage them to share the lesser known signs of women's heart attacks to millions more. Additionally, we asked them to encourage more women to share their data by signing up to clinical trials to help collate more diverse data points so the medical profession can learn more about this

This campaign was especially important for the region, as from our research we know that since the 1990s there’s not been enough news to raise awareness of the misdiagnosis of women’s heart attacks here. We also had to overcome other hurdles as it can be difficult to get approvals from health authorities in certain countries in the MENA region prior to launching consumer awareness campaigns. Strict guidelines are in place to ensure communications do not instil fear or lean on negative connotations of a disease. So we carefully tailored our campaign not to overstep the mark but still give it enough power to change behaviour, raise awareness and shift the medical gender data bias.

Gender inequality has created a worrying lack of awareness about women’s cardiovascular health in the Gulf region - so we sent one Arabic woman, AKA 'Mis[s]diagnosed' to help prove this issue. We got her to meet pharmacists, home call-out nurses, medical professionals, doctors, ER emergency professionals and cardiovascular specialists, across the Gulf region, exhibiting the lesser know signs of women's heart attacks. Worryingly 83% failed to spot the signs. Once we had proved the lack of awareness was rife, we delivered a life saving jolt to medical professionals across the region. We packaged Mis[s]diagnosed’s research inside specially designed medical Awareness Aid Kits. These kits were sent to key Arabic women of influence, doctors, cardiologists and health care professionals throughout the region who then spread the Mis[s]diagnosed story to millions more and call for more women to sign up for clinical trials.

Target Audience: Arab women, cardiovascular professionals and HCP's in the Gulf region.

Approach:

Phase 1- Via an online poll we asked 4000 Arabic women if they knew the signs of a woman's heart attack – 97.4% didn't.

Phase 2-We sent one woman under-cover to meet medical professionals across the region; exhibiting the lesser known signs of female heart attacks - 83% missed her signs.

Phase 3-We packaged this data and her story inside specially designed 'Awareness Aid kits' to expose this worrying statistics.

Phase 4-Sent the kits to Arabic women of influence, and 100’s of HCP's across the region urging them to share the signs.

Phase 5-Fully integrated awareness campaign through influencers, shared our message to #KnowTheSigns, in addition to social media placements, on-ground HCP events & seminars at teaching hospitals.

Phase 6-Working with 100’s of companies to encourage women to give us the data to protect their futures.

We sent one Arab woman aka 'Mis[s]diagnosed' under-cover to medical professionals across the region; exhibiting the lesser known signs of women's heart attacks, documenting her journey of misdiagnosis using hidden audio and pinhole cameras. We packaged this story inside specially designed 'Awareness Aid Kits'. And sent these kits to 37 Arab women of influence, 100’s of doctors, cardiologists and HCP’s across the region. Once unboxed, they could listen to Mi[s]diagnosed tell her story and learn about the lesser known signs of women's heart attacks.

They were then encouraged to share her story and spread mass awareness of the lesser known signs to further expose and help close the medical gender data gap. The campaign aired on 29 Sept (World Heart Day) through influencers sharing our message, social media placements, on-ground HCP events & seminars at teaching hospitals. The campaign ran until Jan 16th in Egypt, Kuwait, UAE, Saudi, Lebanon, Bahrain.

Campaigned for free:

3 Teaching hospitals

12 International Heart Foundations/charities

37 Women of influence

100’s of doctors, medical professionals & cardiologists

Campaign reach:

28.7 million now #KnowTheSigns

Campaign impact:

28 million more women are now aware of the early warning signs in the region.

+24% Increase in social engagement for Organon

+17% more women - Showed interest in clinical trails (during the month of the campaign)

1 woman’s life saved - Millions more to go #KnowTheSigns

Campaign cost:

$60,000 dollars

To further combat the gender data gap and address the misrepresentation of women in clinical trials, Mis[s]diagnosed's story is helping Pharma and healthcare companies diversify their clinical trials and ensure more inclusive treatment innovations via via IPG Health's 'Trial for the #ClinicalEquality Initiative'.

While there has been global coverage about the issue that women present very different heart attack symptoms than men, very little is being done about solving the issue. News stories can only do so much. This campaign's purpose was to not only raise the issue and drive mass awareness of the atypical signs of female heart attacks, but also to get more women to sign up to clinical trials. More female clinical data will help inform the wider medical profession and thus stop the misdiagnosis from happening so often. Saving countless female lives in the process. Moving forward Organon will be promoting this campaign and the need for more diverse clinical trials with further conversations around the issue this year - the campaign is not stopping here. And working with IPG Health's 'Trial for #ClinicalEquailty' Initiative we hope to produce follow up campaigns around the need for diverse clinical trials.