In partnership with Dexcom, a company which develops continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems for diabetes management, Cogora developed an educational handbook for UK primary care practitioners titled, ‘Supporting diabetes management to help improve health and lives’.
Following the latest NICE guidance for treating children and adults with type 1 diabetes and adults meeting criteria with type 2 diabetes, Dexcom sought to educate GPs, primary care nurses and pharmacists about how real-time CGM (rtCGM) can help improve the lives of people with diabetes, and how HCPs can support their patients to maximise the benefits of this technology.
Cogora handbooks are an effective way to communicate educational or product-centred messaging, through the creation of a visually appealing A5 handbook, written and designed by Cogora: The Agency. KOL-led education increases knowledge and gives self-confidence to HCPs when evolving their practice, helping to drive change forward.
The handbook is introduced by a foreword from a key opinion leader (KOL) who holds the same role as your target audience, to add an element of authenticity and relatability for your reader. We work with the KOL to ensure their foreword sets the scene of the treatment landscape and introduces the unmet need.
Cogora recruited three KOLs to assist with the development of the handbook foreword; Nicola Milne (nurse), Nadia Malik (pharmacist) and Fernando Kevin (GP). The forewords for this handbook discussed:
Improving how HCPs interpret and act on data from CGM can help make more informed decisions about treatment, which can positively impact the health of diabetes patients.
We walk our readers through an introduction to your therapy area, product information and key clinical trials, product safety information, the disease burden and importance of treatment, and guidance on using the product. We introduce an ideal patient profile at the beginning of the handbook, which is then revisited at the end to tie it all together.
For the Dexcom handbook, an introduction to the burden of self-monitoring glucose levels via finger prick method and the importance of tackling diabetes from a healthcare systems and individual perspective set the scene for the rest of the handbook. This was followed by the current guidance on the use of CGM, including the updated NICE 2022 Guidelines NG17 and NG28.
Two fictional patient cases were then introduced, as examples of the real issues that patients face and goals for treatment.
The patient benefits of Dexcom rtCGM were highlighted using clinical trial data, and an interesting section about the benefits of CGM during exercise was included. The handbook then described the features of the Dexcom ONE Continuous Glucose Monitoring system, with instructions on use and reading glucose metrics from the associated app.
The final page of the handbook revisited the patient cases, describing how utilising rtCGM can have positive benefits on quality of life and glycaemic management.
The handbook was hosted as an PDF on Pulse, Nursing in Practice and The Pharmacist, with advertising to our community of primary care HCPs. To help ensure high levels of engagement across the content, the handbook was promoted via our editorial newsletters, as well as being spotlighted across each website’s homepage and relevant clinical zone. A series of bespoke emails were also sent, reaching over 38,000 HCPs.
We subsequently updated the handbook to refer to the new Dexcom ONE+ technology in 2024.
The client was kept up to date with performance metrics for the sponsored hub via monthly campaign engagement reports.
Throughout the six-month hosting period, the handbook generated over 3,600 views/downloads.
Included in the marketing was a selection of bespoke emails, generating a 58% uplift in open rate compared to the benchmark of other emails sent via Pulse, Nursing in Practice and The Pharmacist.