Reaching Clinicians to Normalize HPV Vaccination for Preteens

Background: This presentation on CDC’s HPV Vaccine is Cancer Prevention campaign will demonstrate how clinician engagement, peer-to-peer outreach, and paid media, can be used to reach target audiences and share research-based messages and materials to ensure clear, consistent communication.

Program background:  Since an effective recommendation for HPV vaccination from a clinician is the top predictor for vaccination, CDC implemented a multi-faceted campaign to inform and support pediatric clinicians who can help prevent future cases of HPV cancers by recommending and administering HPV vaccine.

Evaluation Methods and Results: Clinician outreach included a digital and print media buy targeting clinician audiences who influence parents’ vaccination decisions such as pediatricians, family physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and obstetrician-gynecologists. Clinicians were also engaged at major medical conferences presentations and exhibit booths to share guidelines and successful techniques for improving vaccination. CDC secured strategic paid advertising at the medical conferences, including exclusive on-site placements to drive traffic to CDC’s booth.  The #PreteenVaxScene Adolescent Immunization Webinar Series was implemented to educate clinicians and public health professionals about changes in recommendations, and specific communication strategies to increase HPV vaccine uptake.

Conclusions: Print and digital ads earned more than 226M impressions and nearly 550,000 click-throughs to the CDC’s HPV website. Across four conferences of pediatric and family medicine, more than 2000 conference attendees visited the CDC exhibit booth, and 300 attended conference sessions on HPV vaccination. At these events, clinicians interacted with HPV vaccination champions/clinician influencers, and received targeted campaign materials, including 2,750 action cards with steps for implementing changes to increase HPV vaccination rates. CDC also held twelve live webinars that engaged a total of 8,316 participants. Participants answered two satisfaction polling questions during each webinar, and most reported receiving helpful/very helpful information that they would use in their practices. Eight webinars were posted online and viewed nearly 10,000 times to date.

Implications for research and/or practice: Clinician engagement, peer-to-peer outreach, and paid media are all helping CDC achieve its goal of increasing awareness of the importance of HPV vaccination to prevent cancer and increasing uptake of HPV vaccine among adolescents ages 11–12.