About FDA

Description: This project uses social media, publication promotions, and traditional outreach activities to facilitate consumer access to reliable, science-based information on FDA regulated products and issues of importance to women. OWH consumer publications along with FDA product safety alerts and other materials will be disseminated to consumers, health professionals, advocates and other target audiences via digital outreach channels (FDA website, Twitter, Pinterest, You Tube) the Federal Citizen Information Center, and OWH conference exhibits.

Accomplishment: FY14 - OWH utilized a multipronged strategy (print publication distribution, digital outreach, stakeholder outreach) to encourage women to utilize FDA safe medication use resources and to provide women and women’s health professionals with information they can use to make informed decisions about the use of FDA regulated products. Working in collaboration with USA.gov, OWH distributed 6 million consumer publications in 2014 through the Federal Citizen Information Center and OWH outreach activities including four special promotions: (1) New Year – New You Promotion; (2) College Health/ Spring Break Promotion; (3) National Women’s Health Week Promotion; and (4) Healthy Aging Promotion. The materials were made available to consumers for personal use and to healthcare professionals, community based service providers, women’s organizations, and national associations for use in clinical services and health promotion activities. As a part of the digital outreach, OWH utilized Pinterest, Twitter, Email and the For Women section of FDA’s website to disseminate FDA risk communication alerts, consumer health messages, and program announcements to women’s health stakeholders. OWH participated in 5 twitter chats in priority areas: Medicine and Pregnancy, Minority Health, FDASIA 907 Action Plan, and National Women’s Health Week. OWH also increased @FDAWomen followers from 34,000 to 47,000 and increased the average number of engagements from 10 per tweet in 2013 to 16 per tweet in 2014. OWH launched FDA’s first Pinterest board and cultivated over 700 followers – the most of any FDA Pinterest board. OWH reached over 1.9 million users with 33 email alerts and monthly updates on FDA information and activities of interest to women. In addition, over 267,000 publications were downloaded through the For Women website. Lastly, OWH co-sponsored a stakeholder meeting to solicit input from health professionals, researchers, and consumers about pregnancy exposure registries and other studies of medication use during pregnancy. OWH co-sponsored with CDER and CBER the May 2014 Public Meeting: Study Approaches and Methods to Evaluate the Safety of Drugs and Biological Products during Pregnancy in the Post-Approval Setting.

FY15 - OWH conducted a “Pregnancy Publication Promotion” with USA.gov to disseminate information on safe medication use and food safety to health professionals, WIC programs, state and local service providers, and other community based organizations. OWH raised awareness about this promotion via our conference exhibits, collaboration with text4baby, and email outreach. These outreach activities resulted in the distribution of 309,650 publications in FY15 through the Pregnancy Publication Promotion with USA.gov. We had just over 40,000 visits to the Medicine and Pregnancy webpage and 43,000 visits to the pregnancy registry listing page and main page. OWH partnered with the CDER Division of Pediatric and Maternal Health to develop and disseminate a flyer designed to educate health professionals about the OWH Pregnancy Exposure Registry Web Listing. OWH and DPMH conducted outreach at national health professional conferences including ACOG, ACNM, and AANP. OWH is also conducting a digital ad campaign to promote the Pregnancy Exposure Registry Web Listing and encourage pregnant women to sign up for a registry. Due to changes with the Agency’s Google account, the campaign did not launch until September 2015. So, the campaign is ongoing. OWH conducted twitter chats on heart health for women and contact lens safety with government and external partners. OWH surpassed the goal and conducted five publication special promotions with USA.gov. The promotions are designed to raise awareness about FDA health information and digital resources for women. The materials include general tips for consumers and links to FDA web resources in the topic areas. OWH utilized Pinterest to raise awareness about the safe use of FDA-regulated products including medicines, foods, and cosmetics. The two boards managed by OWH have more followers than FDA’s other boards. The pins resulted in referrals to the For Women section of FDA’s website which is managed by OWH, as well as, to web content managed by the FDA Product Centers.

FY16 - OWH’s Take Time to Care program conducted outreach to diverse populations of women including pregnant women, college women, and minority women. In FY16, OWH disseminated 3.5 million fact sheets, consumer updates, and medication booklets on safe medication use and other FDA regulated products. To educate women about medication use during pregnancy, OWH’s pregnancy promotion disseminated over 189,000 publications since October 2015. OWH also released a new medicine and pregnancy fact sheet and conducted a digital ad campaign from September - November 2015 that achieved over 1.4 million impressions and 12,000 visits to the pregnancy registry website. OWH launched a new webpage for female caregivers that provides tips and links to FDA resources. OWH also released new Asian Language consumer publications to educate women about heart disease in women. Lastly, OWH completed a month long digital and email outreach project targeting college students and college health professionals that helped to disseminate 1,700 college campaign posters and increased web traffic to the college women's page by 324%.