Emirates Health Services bags win at GovMedia Awards 2023
Its Media Innovation Lab sessions covered topics on empowering youth, media systems for the health sector, amongst others.
Government healthcare organisation Emirates Health Services (EHS) clinched the National Health Initiative of the Year - United Arab Emirates at the recently held GovMedia Awards for the hosting of the first Media Innovation Lab by its Communication and Marketing Department in March 2022.
The event, which saw around 45 executives and media representatives attending, launched four sessions that covered topics on the ‘Youth and their role in creating world-leading media content,’ ‘Media’s role in enhancing the UAE’s global position in the health services sector,’ ‘Media system for the health sector and future aspirations,’ and ‘Social and digital media as a key component in reaching all segments of society, with each session concluding with a set of outputs and recommendations.
The first topic focused on empowering young people, drawing on their ideas and creative energies, raising their awareness, training them on the basics of media and promotion, providing courses on media production, and collaborating with relevant authorities to exchange experiences in the media and health sectors.
Meanwhile, the second topic discussed the need to develop a media plan for services and initiatives, communicate with media outlets to highlight achievements and develop programmes for TV and social media targeting all segments of society to raise awareness about EHS’ services.
For the third topic, the outputs recommended developing a proactive plan to tackle future pandemics, intensifying media campaigns, providing virtual training programmes, and increasing awareness on how to deal with health media networks.
The fourth and last topic underlined the importance of enhancing awareness of EHS’ services, launching educational campaigns, highlighting EHS’ presence, participating in global events, and showcasing EHS’ experiences and achievements.
The outputs helped improve public engagement by hosting 846 events, exceeding the targeted 700. The events reported 92% overall satisfaction, 95% user satisfaction for social media compared to a targeted 88%, and a 69% engagement rate on social media compared to a targeted 70%. EHS also marked a 63% increase in the number of social media followers, an 83% increase in the level of perception of EHS services, and a 99% increase in feedback and response to inquiries through various channels.
Some outputs were also included in EHS’ Operational Plan 2023-2026, enabling the organisation to gain international accreditation in organising innovative events, along with international certifications and accreditations.
Emirates Health Services included these outputs in the Government Communication Strategy, the Internal and External Communication Manual, and the Outreach and Marketing Strategy. They were applied across 134 health facilities and EHS affiliates.
GovMedia Awards recognises the most outstanding government projects and initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region and is open to both government departments or organisations and companies supplying services or solutions to government projects.
The GovMedia Awards is presented by GovMedia Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2024 awards programme and be recognised for your organisation's government projects and initiatives, please contact Jane Patiag at [email protected].
