Antibodies. Variants. Transmissibility. Who would have ever thought we’d use words like these in everyday life?

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted how important it is to understand health information to help keep ourselves and our families, friends and communities healthy.

Improving health literacy – defined as a person’s ability to find, understand and use information and services to make health-related decisions for themselves and others – is important to health situations across the board, from disease prevention options to clinical trials to cancer, HIV, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and many others.

Getting information that is accurate, relevant and presented in a meaningful way is challenging- especially in the digital age where we might have to navigate often contradictory health messages or even misinformation. As a pharmaceutical company, MSD has a vital role to play in ensuring that the information we provide to the people who are prescribed our medicines reaches the highest standards.

It is for this reason we have committed to joining the Patient Information Forum’s PIF-TICK standard . Being part of the scheme not only means we should be assuring accuracy, but also co-creating health information with the people it is being made for. It also means working collaboratively with organisations who know the communities most affected by the diseases and conditions we work in. Our policy statement on patient information creation can be found here

Why improving health literacy is urgent

The Patient Information forum say that:

• 1 in 6 in UK have very low literacy skills[i]^{, [ii]}
• up to 1 million people in UK cannot speak English well or at all[iii]

Knowing that this will impact on health inequality and outcomes means we know we need to do a better job at meeting people where they are and on their terms.

How we’re making health information easier to understand

Internationally, some of the ways we’re improving health literacy in our own communications include:

• Creating easy-to-read patient labels
• Improving packaging and instructions for use
• Developing easy-to-understand disease education materials
• Improving health literacy in clinical trials
• Sharing best practices externally

There is always more we can do and we aim to keep improving.

Have you seen some MSD patient materials or information?

What did you think?

We would love suggestions on how we could do better and things we should do more of. Email our Medical Information team at: medicalinformationuk@msd.com

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[i] Survey of Adult Skills 2012 oecd.org/skills/piaac

[ii] Skills for Life 2011 assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/36000/12-p168-2011-skills-for-life-survey.pdf

[iii] www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/uk-population-by-ethnicity/demographics/english-language-skills/latest

GB-NON-06409 | Date of Preparation: September 2022

As part of MSD’s volunteering policy – employees attended a 2 day event with a London charity

In the first week of July, members of our Early Talent Forum, comprised of student placements, graduates, and apprentices, utilised MSD’s volunteering leave policy to collectively commit over 100 hours of volunteering at The Passage – London’s largest voluntary sector day centre for homeless and vulnerable people.

Across 2 days, they worked intensely to prepare food for a fundraising event. The sessions were held at The Passage’s Resource Centre in Westminster, where the charity provides immediate services like meals, showers, laundry, medical appointments, and substance misuse and mental health support.

Our volunteers were called upon to help preparations for The Passages annual Summer Garden Party. Rolling their sleeves up for two busy days of chopping, slicing, and dicing, our volunteers helped ready a buffet of food items, including hulling 250 punnets of strawberries, dicing over 200 onions, and packaging 200+ tubs of coleslaw, salad, and salsa.

The impact of their work was imminently felt. ‘We only have two permanent chefs’ Fran Hodge, Volunteering Manager at the Passage told our volunteers, ‘They’re fun and they run a tight ship.’ With only two days to go before the big event, and preparations to be made for over 500+ people, our early talent volunteers were eager and active in fulfilling their culinary duties.

The event was labelled a ‘gleaming success’ and fundraised for the hundreds of vulnerable people and rough sleepers the Passage aids, helping them to live safe, happy and fulfilling live.

Having completed his volunteering session feeling freshly fulfilled, ETF co-lead and volunteer co-ordinator, Sam Rogers, reflects on his experience ‘MSD’s volunteering policy speaks to something that is intrinsic to everyone in the company – a want to ‘give back’. We really want to thank all the wonderful people at The Passage. It was inspiring to see the passion and hard work behind what you do and rewarding for us to get an insight into your world and lend a helping hand’’

GB-NON-06233 | Date of Preparation: July 2022

This year, 32 of our employees from around the world will be supporting the efforts of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) through our Richard T. Clark Fellowship for Global Health programme.

Every year, a cohort of global employees enrol onto the company’s three-month corporate pro bono programme. Through leveraging the skills and knowledge of our Fellows, the programme aims to assist our NGO partners in strengthening their capacity and reach with technical and human capital support; in turn providing increased access to health services, products and education to their local communities. Though the programme is only three months in length, the impact that the Fellowship has on the NGO partners, MSD in the UK, and its employees lasts long after the project’s completion.

2022 marks the tenth year of the Fellowship programme, and this year, thirty-two employees from 13 countries will serve as RTC Fellows from July 25^th to October 7^th. The Fellows will work in small cross-functional teams across 11 global projects, serving communities across Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America in a diverse range of areas including clinical research, oncology, supply chain, and sexual health.

MSD in the UK is delighted that two of our employees, Nat Philips and Sara Khan, will be participating in this year’s Fellowship.

Always seeking new opportunities to grow, Internal Communications Senior Specialist Nat Philips is passionate about making a difference to the health outcomes to the populations that she works with:

‘The RTC Fellowship has been on my radar since I joined MSD in 2014, but it is only since it became a remote opportunity during COVID that I felt able to apply. I am excited to be able to join a programme where my knowledge and skills accrued across 25 years in the public and commercial sectors can be utilised to benefit others at a global scale; and I am curious to what I will learn from undertaking this project that will benefit my role at MSD when I return to work in October.’

With a background in primary care, Associate Director Medical Affairs Sara Khan is excited to make a difference through her work with the programme:

‘Prior to joining MSD, I was a Primary Care Physician with an interest in global and public health, and so when I first heard about the RTC Fellowship, I was immediately drawn to it and envisaged it being deeply rewarding. I also felt it would suit my skillset, meaning I could provide effective and impactful support to the NGOs that are part of the fellowship. I am excited about the programme starting, working in a small global team, and seeing what we can achieve during the 3-month programme!’

We wish Nat and Sara well on their Fellowship journeys, and look forward to hearing more about their experiences once they return!

GB-NON-06123 | Date of Preparation: June 2022