Groundbreaking documentary project featuring psoriasis patients wins prestigious award
More than 125 million people worldwide suffer from psoriasis – a complex and serious disease that can have a large impact on a person’s life, family and community. The Under the Spotlight documentary film project seeks to portray the true nature of psoriasis, and took home the prize for “Excellence in Patient Focus” at the PMEA Awards in London, November 28.
(Stockholm, December 2, 2013)
What many people might see as a mere discomfort, or a cosmetic problem, is in fact a serious, inflammatory, immune-mediated disease. Psoriasis can also, due to its very visual nature, be highly stigmatizing, leading to ostracism, discrimination and severe loss of self-esteem, even thoughts of suicide.
In 2009 the International Federation of Psoriasis Associations, IFPA, joined forces with UK-based communication experts Lucid and global healthcare company AbbVie to raise awareness about psoriasis and try to eradicate the many myths and misconceptions associated with this noncommunicable disease. This project has since grown to encompass hundreds of short films, featuring people with psoriasis from four different continents who have chosen to share their moving, often heart-breaking, stories with the world.
Putting psoriasis on the global health agenda
The Under the Spotlight project has been used extensively by IFPA’s national member organizations all over the world, in a number of settings, and has also been featured in side events at the World Health Assembly and European Parliament.
“The impact of showing the persons actually living with a disease should never be underestimated”, says Lars Ettarp, President of IFPA. “We see people from all over the world who come from different cultures and speak different languages, but have the same problems, face the same difficulties in their everyday lives. The Under the Spotlight project has not only shown the world how serious psoriasis is, it has also shown millions of people that they are not alone in this disease, and that there is hope for the future.”
Psoriasis - a worldwide problem
One of the programme’s main objectives was to show that psoriasis is truly a global health challenge, and according to the PMEA jury, this has been achieved in a very successful manner:
“This ambitious and effective globalisation programme successfully raised the profile of psoriasis, showing it to be a worldwide problem. Driven by excellent insight it was impressive in both ambition and scale and raised awareness of the deep emotional impact of this disease on sufferers. They did all the right things really well!”
About the PMEA
The Pharmaceutical Market Excellence Awards programme is designed to recognize and commend excellence, best practice and innovation in local, European and international healthcare markets.[1]
They are organized by independent publisher PMGroup Worldwide and the jury is made up of leading experts in communication, marketing and innovation within healthcare. Please visit the website for more information about the PMEA and the Excellence in Patient Focus award category.
About Under the Spotlight
Under the Spotlight is a unique series of documentaries which aims to demonstrate first-hand how the burden of psoriasis can impact a person’s life and how this may accumulate over time. Developed by the International Federation of Psoriasis Associations (IFPA) and its member associations, brave ‘Spotlighters’ from across the globe have agreed to be filmed over a number of years to reveal the impact psoriasis has had on all aspects of their lives, with the hope to raise disease awareness and share experiences with others. You can view all the films at www.underthespotlight.com.
Contact information
For more information on IFPA and Under the Spotlight, please contact Barbra Bohannan, IFPA Director of Communications, at barbra.bohannan@pso.se, or +46 708 631 531.
About IFPA
The International Federation of Psoriasis Associations (IFPA) is the non-profit umbrella organization for the majority of psoriasis associations from around the world. Today IFPA has 50 member associations. IFPA unites psoriasis associations so that their global campaign for improved medical care, greater public understanding and increased research will improve the lives of the more than 125 million people who live with psoriasis and/or psoriatic arthritis and explore the challenges psoriasis presents to the international psoriasis community.
[1] Information on PMEA Awards from http://www.pmlive.com/awards/pmea/welcome
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