Comac Medical’s “Take a responsible step” diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) awareness campaign was honored with a National Medical Award for the category „Social Responsibility and human resources in the medicine“.

Comac Medical, established 23 years ago, celebrated its recognition for demonstrated expertise, care, and sense of community in the area of DFU disease prevention.

The campaign was targeted at patients with DFU in Bulgaria. It was developed to create awareness for the complications of the disease and to work on a prevention program to make patients conscious of their disease stage and next steps in the treatments process.

Launched in 2019 in partnership with 4 medical centers and more than 10 physicians, including surgeons and endocrinologists, this award-winning campaign pioneered a new approach to raise awareness across the nation about DFU.  The undertaken approach included the following elements:

• Creating awareness among patients through articles from physicians published in national media about risks of amputation, informing people that these risks can be dramatically reduced, and prompting them to ask for more information.
• Initiating а “free-consultations” program offering clinician support and advice to patients about the associated risks of complications, amputation, risk-reduction choices, and available treatments.
• Participating in local and national events to consult patients about their condition with a focus on giving patients context and choice about which risks they want to tackle, when and how.
• Developing a patient information leaflet for people with diabetes and foot ulcers which can be used alongside existing information resources.

Commenting on the awards, Dariya Raykova, PR of the campaign, said: “I am very proud and happy that we won the award. As a company that provides healthcare services, our aim is improving people’s quality of life. Therefore, we have to constantly work on raising social awareness of diseases.”

The award was given at an official ceremony on June 25, 2020.

Partners of the event are the National Patient Organization (NGO), the Bulgarian Medical Association (BMA), and the National Association of General Practitioners, the Sofia Medical College at the BMA and others.