eHealth Activities for World AIDS Day 2007
(Updated November 30, 2007)
In support of DHHS and CDC's World AIDS Day activities, the National Center for Health Marketing (NCHM) collaborated with the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP) to produce a variety of interactive media tools designed to raise awareness, motivate people to get tested, and commemorate World AIDS Day.
Mobile KnowIt Campaign and Online Testing Locator
In collaboration with the HIV Center here at CDC, AIDS.gov, and the Kaiser Family Foundation, a mobile text application was developed to locate HIV testing centers by zip code. Users can text their zip code to "KnowIt" (566948) and, within seconds, receive a text message identifying an HIV testing site near them. Users who prefer or do not have cell phones can use the online testing database at HIVtest.org to find testing centers.
Public Service Announcements
Two television and one radio spot were developed to promote the KnowIt campaign. The spots can be downloaded from HIVtest.org and used by grantees and other organizations to promote HIV testing. MTV began running the television spots on 11/28/2007.
Two Health Communicators from CDC also participated in an innovative project conceived by Dr. Scott Shamp of the New Media Institute at the University of Georgia to produce a new kind of PSA, called a Personal Public Service Announcement or PPSA. The PPSA was developed in recognition of the increasing need to reach certain audiences, in particular youth, via personal media, like mobile phones and MP3 players. The PPSA also marks one of the first CDC attempts at using user-generated content to promote healthy behaviors. The PPSAs were developed by student teams from Temple University, the University of Georgia, and the University of South Carolina. This project was paid for by Verizon Communications, with support from CDC, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, the Paul C. and Margaret Beasely Broun Student Support Fund, AIDS Research Consortium of Atlanta, Philadelphia FIGHT, the AIDS Library, the Youth Health Empowerment Project, South Carolina Educational Television and the AIDS Activities Coordinating Office from the Philadelphia Public Health Department.
CDC.gov Home Page Features
In collaboration with NCHHSTP, two feature articles were developed for the prominently placed CDC.gov feature area. Written for consumers, the World AIDS Day feature outlined the impact of HIV and AIDS in the United States and globally, provided key ways to make a difference in our fight to end the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and provided a list of related resources. The second feature promoted a new Global HIV Testing and Counseling Intervention called Couples HIV Counseling and Testing (CHCT) Intervention and Training Curriculum.
Graphical Buttons and Ads for Web Sites
CDC invited partners, grantees, and CDC.gov users to download buttons commemorating World AIDS Day and HIV testing. CDC also provided health-related websites, like WebMD, with online ads.
Badges for Sharing on Social Networks
For the first time, CDC used social networks, such as MySpace, to promote HIV testing and World AIDS Day activities. NCHM/eHealth developed a series of badges for social network users to display on their profile page. We also promoted the badges on the newly launched CDC MySpace page. MySpace users can cut and paste the graphical badge from CDC's newly launched MySpace page and place it on their own MySpace or other social network profile.
Email Announcement
On Wednesday, November 28th, using the GovDelivery email update service, CDC sent out an email to the nearly 25,000 email subscribers to HIV-related announcements. The new announcement encourages readers to "get involved" and commemorate World AIDS Day using our buttons and badges.
Webcast
Dr. Kevin Fenton from CDC, Deborah Parham from HRSA, Beverly Watts Davis from SAMHSA, and Dr. Anthony Fauci from NIH participated in a World AIDS Day webcast sponsored by AIDS.gov. The webcast goals were to engage in a dialogue on HIV and AIDS and to talk about the state of the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic and our efforts to combat it.
Blogs
Dr. Jay Bernhardt shared observations and insights about the importance of the World AIDS Day activities on his health marketing blog, Health Marketing Musings.
Health-e-Cards
CDC.gov users can encourage their friends, family, co-workers, and public health partners to commemorate World AIDS Day by sending a free electronic greeting card.
For more information about CDC's World AIDS Day eHealth efforts, contact Ann Aikin at aaikin@cdc.gov or 404-498-6715.
Page last modified on December 4, 2007