Clickatell delivers NHS health information by SMS

News in from SMS Text News sponsor Clickatell. They are going great guns with the health industry around the world.

Here in the UK, they’ve been working with the Birmingham Teaching Primary Care Trust (and partners 123 Consultans) to deliver health and medical information by text to over 300,000 people. Fantastic! Obviously the NHS’s goal is to raise awareness around health issues such as diet, drugs and safe sex among the public, with a specific focus on teen health. What better way to talk to teenagers than by text?

Interested members of the public just need to text ‘stop smoking’ (for example) to receive relevant information about a specific health topic.

Clickatell’s recent release points out this key point:

Given a teenager’s need for immediacy and privacy when it comes to various health questions, this service is especially important for them to be able to receive legitimate and trusted information to answer their questions around sex, pregnancy, drugs, and other critical health issues.

According to Phil Colledge of 123 Consultants, “Typically this important information has been spread via printed leaflets, which often only reached 1% of the intended audience. By comparison, SMS reaches over 90% of its intended audience, at around 50–60 % of the cost.”

Absolutely. I’m pleased the Birmingham Trust is doing this but I’d like to see every UK Trust adopt the medium, especially when they’re targeting teenagers.

Standby for two more wicked health/SMS case studies from Clickatell – I’ll post them over the next few days.