Routine practice, big impact
What if a simple change in routine could save lives? For many immigrants to Canada, access to timely healthcare isn’t just a matter of convenience – it’s a matter of survival. Some immigrants are up to four times more likely to have hepatitis C than the Canadian average, and up to six times more likely to have hepatitis B. But because their risk factors are usually different from those born in Canada, they are often overlooked in Canadian screening programs.
Enter CATIE’s Routine Practice campaign, designed to change the way Canadian healthcare providers approach viral hepatitis screening.
By blending data-driven insights with a commitment to equity, this campaign isn’t just changing practices – it’s changing lives. And the lessons we learned in the process go much further than this campaign.
The power of data: Why numbers speak louder than stories
When it comes to motivating healthcare providers, data reigns supreme. While personal stories can be moving, and useful in building public awareness, our pre-campaign research revealed that service providers are more likely to take action when presented with hard-hitting epidemiological facts. When providers were told that newcomers to Canada can experience up to a 10-year delay in getting a hepatitis C diagnosis, they felt a stronger sense of urgency to incorporate routine screening into their practice.
This insight led CATIE to prioritize numbers in our messaging, using clear and compelling statistics to underscore the need for proactive screening. By arming healthcare providers with data, like prevalence among specific populations, the campaign empowers them to make informed decisions that can save lives.
How to reach immigrants without stigmatizing them
Addressing health disparities among marginalized groups, especially those who face discrimination, is a delicate balancing act. How do you highlight the disproportionate impact of hepatitis B and C on immigrants and newcomers without reinforcing harmful stereotypes or fueling an anti-immigrant backlash? CATIE’s Routine Practice campaign does this by highlighting the systemic and structural factors that drive these differences.
Instead of focusing on immigrants as a “risk group,” the campaign explained on social media that some immigrants and newcomers have fallen through the cracks of varying clinical guidelines in different countries. This helps to move the conversation from why immigrants and newcomers are more affected towards how we can get them connected to screening.
Feed two birds with one scone: Integrating hepatitis B and C
This campaign was funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health to increase hepatitis C testing rates among immigrants and newcomers, a priority population identified in the province’s hepatitis C elimination roadmap. Hepatitis B also disproportionately affects immigrants and newcomers, and similar to the reasons for hepatitis C, this population is often overlooked in Canadian screening programs.
Integrating hepatitis B into our messaging not only broadened the campaign’s impact, but also reinforced the importance of comprehensive health screening, rather than viewing health concerns in siloes.
The results are in
Less than two months after launching at the end of January 2025, digital campaign ads have already been seen more than 3.6 million times. They are targeted towards healthcare providers in Ontario through LinkedIn, digital TV ads that can segment audiences by profession, and also through out-of-home ads placed near hospitals and clinics.
These aren’t just numbers. Each time the campaign is viewed by a healthcare provider in Ontario, we get closer to normalizing the offer of testing for immigrants from countries where hepatitis B or C are common. And this normalization creates a more inclusive healthcare system that is responsive to the needs of newcomers.
CATIE’s Routine Practice campaign, funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and produced by Point Blank Creative, is more than just a call to action. It’s a blueprint for how public health campaigns can drive meaningful change by leveraging data and research.
Fozia Tanveer is manager of multilingual programming at CATIE.