e-Newsletter - March 2015
Advancing the Prevention, Early Diagnosis, and
Treatment of Life-Threatening Blood Clots
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March Madness: No Brackets, But Definitely a Slam Dunk for Blood Clot Awareness
In recognition of Blood Clot Awareness Month, celebrated in March each year, the National Blood Clot Alliance (NBCA) launched a brand new public education campaign this month with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to increase awareness about life-threatening blood clots and to urge people nationwide to ask themselves one potentially life-saving question: Could I be at risk for a blood clot?
This important new public campaign -- called Stop the Clot, Spread the Word™ -- is using the latest digital communications tools to reach millions and millions of people nationwide, and to sharpen public awareness about blood clot risk factors, as well as the signs and symptoms of blood clots. This is the first time that NBCA has embarked on an awareness initiative of this magnitude, and we're proud to now share some of the work that  we've been doing and the new campaign that we've just unveiled.
NBCA's
Stop the Clot, Spread the Word
™ program is exciting not only because it allows NBCA
to amplify important health education messages about blood clots, but also because it e
volves NBCA's previously succ
essful
Stop the Clot®
efforts to now focus squarely on
building widespread public awa
reness and to also include a strong message connected to social sharing.
Our aim with this new initiative is two-fold: 1) Raise public awareness about blood clots and 2) engage the public in a way that will motivate them to share what they learn with others, such as family and friends who also may be unaware of their blood clot risks.
This new public education campaign, made possible through funding provided to the National Blood Clot Alliance by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under Cooperative Agreement
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includes a spectrum of integrated digital health education tools, including an online educational portal that offers a downloadable checklist of blood clot risk factors, a short video about blood clots, and additional information to help people learn more about blood clot risks, signs/symptoms, and prevention. Upcoming, we'll be distributing an infographic to hundreds of online television, radio and print news sites, and we'll also be working to gain more online coverage among bloggers about life-threatening blood clots.
Please join us as we work to distribute this important information widely. Please take a moment and visit our
new campaign site
, and share this information with your family and friends so that together we can Stop the Clot and Spread the Word.
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Digital Media: Oh, iGetIt
NBCA's new
Stop the Clot, Spread the Word™
campaign uses several digital communications tools to get the word out about blood clots.
For example, we distributed a digital media press release nationwide, via MarketWired, on March 11, announcing the launch of the new campaign. Click on the image below to read this release:
We also have a Web banner (shown below) on the Internet that is guiding people directly to our dedicated campaign website.
This dedicated campaign website or educational portal is the centerpiece of this campaign. Click on the image below to check it out.
NBCA also created a new video to deliver important messages about blood clot risk factors and signs and symptoms. Click on the image below to view this short video:
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by Randy Fenninger
March is national Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) Awareness Month, an annual public health initiative aimed at raising public awareness of this commonly occurring medical condition and its potentially fatal complication, pulmonary embolism (PE), blood clots in the lungs. Every year at this time, the National Blood Clot Alliance (NBCA) joins with other organizations to focus public attention on DVT and PE. This March was particularly significant for NBCA as we launched a new public awareness campaign with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) designed to help people better understand the signs and symptoms of blood clots and their own personal risk factors. This new campaign -- Stop the Clot, Spread the Word™ -- builds on NBCA's experience with public and private education and expands our reach using the latest digital messaging tools. It's our most sophisticated public health campaign to date, and I congratulate the NBCA volunteers and staff who have made it possible, and we all thank the CDC for its enthusiastic support. However, we know that one month a year simply is not enough to break the cycle of death and disability caused by blood clots. Even though the majority of clots can be prevented using the tools we have available today, we are not seeing the kinds of results that we all strive for. The stark reality is that every day, on average, 274 people die from blood clots. It's a stubborn number that seems resistant to efforts to shrink it. For too many of the 274 individuals, the first symptom of a blood clot they will have is sudden death. That's why our effort, and the work of others, to make people more aware of the signs and symptoms of blood clots and their own risk is so important and must go on every day of every month, not just in March. Continue reading...
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The Lifelong Impact of DVT/PE Versus One Month of Observance
Blood Clot Awareness Month, like any annual health observance, comes and goes each each year with a certain level of recognition and esteem, but the individual stories and experiences of the people affected by blood clots endure well beyond these 31 days each March. They endure for many more weeks and months and years. For many, blood clots have a lifelong impact that never wanes.
The stories of people affected by blood clots serve as a daily reminder about how very important it is that we continue to do the work that we all do to raise awareness about blood clots and to improve the methods used to prevent, diagnosis, and treat blood clots among the hundreds of thousands of individuals who are affected each year.
Below are several compelling stories from our community. Together, they represent the diverse spectrum of people -- men, women, and children from all walks of life -- affected by blood clots. Click on any image below to read these important stories and be inspired by the personal perspectives they each reflect.
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Community Connection
Oh, How We Love Ohio
Mark your calendars! Team Stop the Clot® is getting ready to run Columbus in the Capital City Half Marathon, taking place Saturday, May 2, 2015. The Capital City Marathon is one of central Ohio's largest running and walking events, and was recently named the "Best Half Marathon in Ohio" by DailyBurn, a national health and fitness company. Most importantly, thanks to the unyielding dedication of NBCA volunteer Roland Varga, NBCA is an Official Charity of this great event. If you want to participate or join Team Stop the Clot® 2015, please contact our good friend and fabulous volunteer Roland Varga via email: clotbusterpolkadots@gmail.com. Click on the image to the left to learn more.
Everything Old is New Again
We recently made some important changes and upgrades to our website:
stoptheclot.org. Among other things,
we added a Spanish language translation function to the top of our home page, which will ensure that people who may need this important information translated will get the facts they need to know about blood clots. Also, we added Twitter to our home page, so if you can, check that out and follow us on Twitter too.
A lot more work needs to be done, but we hope you enjo
y the improvements we've made so far. Click on the image to the left to visit our website.
Important Webinar for Healthcare Professionals About HA-VTE
The National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Division of Blood Disorders, hosted an important webinar for health professionals this month focused on reducing hospital-associated venous thromboembolism or HA-VTE. During this webinar, Dr. Greg Maynard, a member of NBCA's Medical & Scientific Advisory Board, a hospitalist, and also Clinical Professor of Medicine and Chief Quality Officer at the University of California, Davis, in Sacramento, discussed key opportunities for reducing HA-VTE. You can access more information about this webinar and view Dr. Maynard's slide presentation here or by clicking on the image to the left.
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ICYMI: All the News That's Fit to Link
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NBCA Corporate Roundtable
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