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A stint in a doctor’s waiting room was the catalyst for a new broadcasting venture that’s educating Pacific people about their health and entitlements.
Health TV - educating Pacific people about health.
Health TV is the brainchild of social entrepreneurs Travis O’Keefe and Nick Mortland. Three years ago Travis was thumbing an out-of-date magazine in a doctor’s waiting room, when it occurred to him that the time could be better spent learning more about his health. After all, that’s why he was there.
Three year’s worth of research and testing later and Health TV is up and running, broadcasting health and lifestyle information to 200 health-related locations around New Zealand, such as out patients, emergency departments and medical centres.
Health TV uses ‘narrowcast’ television technology to reach its captive audience. The difference between ‘narrowcast’ and regular television is that narrowcast is delivered via the internet rather than by satellite signal. In effect, each location receives its own dedicated TV channel. The advantage of this is that content can be shaped for each location to reflect the demographics and language of those watching.
Chief Advisor Pacific Health, Api Talemaitoga, says the Ministry of Health is commissioning content aimed specifically at Pacific audiences.
“I really thought it would be good to get a Pacific presenter to tell our story and link them in with Pacific clinicians in areas like cardiovascular disease and diabetes. It will be nice to tell these stories in a different way from a consulting scenario. Here is someone they may be able to identify with and we hope one of the messages that comes through is that there is quite a lot you can do yourself – we’re trying to emphasise that prevention side.”
Surveys of 2,200 viewers showed that 94% found Health TV a good way to learn, 86% of those reached were key influencers in the family unit (generally Mums) and that viewers were adopting the healthy tips contained in the programmes.
Api Talemaitoga has high hopes for the initiative. “We’ll be working with the 38 practices that have high Pacific populations to get more of our health messages across using this medium. The doctors are keen to have these messages broadcast. If we target our messages and use Pacific people and Pacific doctors and nurses then we believe the messages will be more effective.”
