Why does our information win awards?

We were thrilled to win two awards this week at the British Medical Association’s (BMA) Patient Information Awards. In this blog, senior editor Tess explains what the awards tell you about our information. 

What do the awards mean?
The BMA gives out awards for patient information every year. We are very proud that our information has won BMA awards and been highly commended before, and this year two of our resources won first-place prizes.

The BMA has strict criteria for who can win awards. It only gives awards to organisations that have done the following four things:

1. Health professionals and appropriate experts have been involved in developing the information. All our medical information is reviewed by cancer professionals. It is approved by a senior medical editor with experience in the relevant topic, and by a consultant medical oncologist. Our non-medical information is reviewed by relevant professionals who are experts in their fields.
2. Users have been involved in developing the information. People affected by cancer are at the heart of all our information. Everything we write is read and reviewed by people affected by cancer. If you would like to read and review our information, you can contact us.
3. The organisation has listed the sources of information it has used to develop the information. We use a number of sources to get evidence for our information. And in all our booklets, we list a sample of the sources we’ve used.
4. The information was published in the last two years. We review our information regularly. We make every effort to ensure it is accurate and up to date.

We do these things for all of our information. That means you know you can trust it. You can read more about how we produce our information.

What did we win the awards for?

Information about bereavement

Our booklet After someone dies – coping with bereavement won the BMA’s Special Award for Ethics. The booklet is for the relatives and friends of anyone who has died from cancer. It covers:

• what to do and expect when someone dies
• the emotions you might go through
• the support that can help
• how to support someone who’s grieving.

You can order a free copy of the booklet. You can also read the information online.

Information about getting active 

Our guide Move more: your guide to becoming more active won the BMA’s Special Award for Self-care. The guide explains how to start doing more physical activity. It covers all the steps to becoming more active:

• Thinking about why you want to get active and how it would make your life different.
• Choosing the right activities.
• Setting realistic goals.
• Tracking your progress.
• Staying motivated and keeping physical activity part of your life.

You can order a free copy of the pack. You can also read the information online.

To see what else Macmillan's cancer information team has been blogging about, please visit our blog home page! You can subscribe to receive our blogs by email or RSS too.

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