Five Easy Ways Your Women’s Health or Cancer Treatment Center Can Support Cervical Health Awareness Month in January 2017

Now that the winter holidays are over, it’s time to get back into the swing of things with marketing and promoting your healthcare facility. This is particularly true if you hospital or clinic offers women’s health services or has a cancer treatment centers, because January is national Cervical Health Awareness Month.

The National Cervical Cancer Coalition estimates that approximately 13,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year. However, because cervical cancer is preventable—especially in conjunction with cervical cancer screenings—the American Cancer Society reports that the cervical cancer death rate has declined by more than 50 percent in the past 30 years. Additionally, the American Cancer Society relates the decline to greater numbers of human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccines given to children, which is linked to most cases of cervical cancer.

Your women’s health or cancer treatment center likely already has strategies for creating awareness about cervical health and encouraging cervical cancer screenings. However, with January being national Cervical Health Awareness Month, there are some excellent tips and resources available that can help you continue those objectives and support this important cause. Here are five to stimulate some of your own ideas!

Update Your Website with Calls to Action for Cervical Cancer Screenings

Creating banners and other call to action graphics that encourage cervical cancer screenings at your facility is perhaps the first and most important step to take, especially if you position them to include Cervical Health Awareness Month messaging.

Likewise, if you have patient management software that enables you to port Website visitors directly to your appointment setting page, your call-to-action graphics can make it even easier for them to find and schedule a cervical health screening.

Create Content to Promote Cervical Health Awareness and Cervical Cancer Prevention

If you have the resources, consider generating other types of online and print content, such as infographics that quickly explain what cervical cancer and HPV are and how they can be prevented and treated.

Another suggestion would be to collect testimonials—especially video testimonials—from people that were able to use your cervical screenings for early detection and your cancer treatment center.

Include Cervical Health Awareness in Your Newsletters and e-Mail Campaigns

One of the most difficult aspects of producing a monthly newsletter or other type of regularly published e-mail campaign is finding subjects that will be of interest to your recipients. Events such as Cervical Health Awareness Month are ideal in this situation because you can offer short, simple messages if space is tight…or you can provide more expanded information if you have space to fill.

Use Social Media for #CervicalHealthMonth Awareness

Along with using social media to share and find useful information related to Cervical Health Awareness month (including trending hashtags such as #cervicalhealthmonth, it’s also an excellent opportunity to expand your networks. For instance, if you don’t already, here are some worthy Twitter accounts you might want to follow:

• @infoASHA, which is heading a Thunderclap to end cervical cancer

• @StopHPVcancer, which is the National Cervical Cancer Coalition’s Twitter

• @_cervicalcancer, which is the account for CC Awareness, a cervical cancer awareness organization

Visit the National Cervical Cancer Association’s Website for Content and Ideas

The NCCC’s Cervical Cancer Awareness Month page provides even more ideas and several outstanding print and online resources, including:

• Free fact sheet download, Ten Things to Know About HPV

• Free eBook, HPV & Cervical Cancer: Stories from Survivors and Supporters

• Cervical Cancer Awareness Month posters

Likewise, the American Cancer Association also has a Cervical Health Awareness Month page that shares an equally superb collection of resources.

Sequence Health proudly supports Cervical Health Awareness Month. For more about our company and our patient management software solution, Sequence, please contact us.