by Eva Augustyn
Dressed to impress as Cristiano Ronaldo, expostulating the merits of the old 4-4-2 formation in San Francisco last month, David Davenport-Firth (DDF), Director of Creativity & Behavioural Medicine, was – obviously – using footballing analogies at the Ogilvy Healthworld Worldwide Conference to impress the growing global burden of chronic disease and OHW’s answer to it: behavioural medicine.
In the context of today’s soaring levels of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, DDF asserted that the treatment of chronic disease is no longer confined to the remits of medicine and biology, but must be complemented by schemes for lifestyle change. He presented OHW’s model of behavioural change which was used to great effect in enhancing a leading smoking cessation medicine to help smokers quit.
DDF explained the staggering results this unique client offering could achieve: if the 87% success rate driven by OHW’s behavioural change intervention was extrapolated across all smokers, over 120 million lives would be saved between 2025-2049 according to WHO estimates (The World Health Report, 1999).
