Clinician creators join the frontline to tackle the silent pandemic of AMR

Photo credit: Thomas Dahlstrøm Nielsen

Fleming Initiative unites clinician creators & communication experts to launch CHAIN: an innovative media network fighting antimicrobial resistance.

Lord Ara Darzi, Executive Chair of the Fleming Initiative, is enrolling global communication experts and clinician creators to raise awareness of the dangers of antimicrobial resistance. He is calling on those working in media and healthcare to come together to support the public in bringing about the necessary changes in everyday behaviours, that can reduce the burden of antimicrobial resistance. 

Led by the Fleming Initiative, the Content, Health, and AMR Innovation Network (CHAIN) aims to harness the power and global reach of video-based online content to drive the behaviour changes needed to tackle the spread of drug-resistant infections known as antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

YouTube Health is collaborating with the Fleming Initiative by connecting clinician creators to CHAIN, in order to help CHAIN amplify public health messaging around AMR through these clinician creators.  In alignment with the values of the Fleming Initiative, YouTube looks to raise up authoritative health information, and make health-related information accessible to populations around the world. 

Clinician creators play an important role in sharing key health messages with the public at scale. YouTube's collaboration with the Fleming Initiative will help raise awareness amongst the general public and fellow clinicians about the AMR challenge. Dr Garth Graham Director and Global Head of Healthcare and Public Health, Google / YouTube

The causes of antimicrobial resistance are often rooted in individual and collective behaviours that lead to the inappropriate use of the essential drugs we all need to fight infection. This includes simple things such as failing to complete courses of antibiotics as prescribed, which create an opportunity for resistance to develop. 

With so many of these global health crises, the battle against antimicrobial resistance starts with people. Getting people to understand antimicrobial resistance, and use medication appropriately – will be key to turning the tide.

At the network’s House of Lords launch event on 29 April, a unique mix of communications experts and professionals working in the field of antimicrobial resistance convened with clinician creators – licensed healthcare professionals who produce health-focused video content – to discuss how the power of communication, and specifically video content, will play an essential role. 

The Fleming Initiative invited those in attendance to join CHAIN, empowering clinician creators to create video content about antimicrobial resistance.

Dr Garth Graham, Director and Global Head of Healthcare and Public Health Google / YouTube said: "Clinician creators play an important role in sharing key health messages with the public at scale. YouTube's collaboration with the Fleming Initiative will help raise awareness amongst the general public and fellow clinicians about the AMR challenge." 

The Content, Health, and AMR Innovation Network (CHAIN)

CHAIN members will have the opportunity to raise awareness of antimicrobial resistance and inspire relevant behaviour changes through several means.

Working with the Fleming Initiative team, members will be given the opportunity to partner with experts in communications and entertainment, provide thought leadership and attend relevant international events as part of the Fleming Initiative team, co-create educational online content, and participate in our research.

To raise and maintain public awareness of antimicrobial resistance, the Fleming Initiative also will mobilise CHAIN members to deliver a coordinated video message in September 2024, coinciding with the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on AMR.

Engaging the public through this newly established network aligns with the Fleming Initiative’s mission of putting society at the heart of solving antimicrobial resistance. By making trustworthy, accurate healthcare information on antimicrobial resistance easier to access, CHAIN will encourage more individuals to make an informed change in personal behaviour. 

Professor David Halpern, President and Founding Director of the Behavioural Insights Team said: "The battle against the silent pandemic of AMR is as much about behaviour as it is medical advances. Our behaviour as patients, clinicians and consumers drives overuse of antibiotics. Fortunately, it is also in our power, and in the cues that affect our behaviour, to reduce the overuse of these precious lifesavers.”

The importance of tackling AMR

Antimicrobial resistance is a global pandemic. It's not a problem for the future or a problem overseas: antimicrobial resistance is a threat here and now. As with climate change, stopping antimicrobial resistance will require each of us to take personal responsibility, to change our behaviours for the greater good. Professor Alison Holmes Director of NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare Associated Infections and AMR, Imperial College London, and Director of the Centre for Antimicrobial Optimisation (CAMO), Imperial College London.

Antimicrobial resistance is an urgent global public health threat that already kills over one million people around the world each year. There is a growing challenge in treating infections such as tuberculosis. 

If the problem is not resolved, it is estimated that by 2050, drug-resistant microbes will lead to around ten million deaths per year.

Founded on a partnership between Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, the Fleming Initiative will uniquely co-locate experts across research, behavioural science and policy to tackle antimicrobial resistance from all angles and on a united front.

Leadership from both Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust are guiding the Fleming Initiative through its initial stages, alongside Lord Ara Darzi: Professor Tim Orchard, Chief Executive of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust; Professor Hugh Brady, President of Imperial College London; and Professor Mary Ryan, Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise) of Imperial College London.

The Fleming Initiative is also drawing from several world-renowned experts, including: Professor David Halpern, President and Founding Director of the Behavioural Insights Team; Professor Dame Sally Davies, UK Special Envoy on Antimicrobial Resistance; and Professor Alison Holmes, Director of the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare Associated Infections and AMR, Imperial College London, and the Centre for Antimicrobial Optimisation (CAMO), Imperial College London.

His Royal Highness Prince William, The Prince of Wales, was recently announced as Patron of the appeal to build the Fleming Centre. As Patron, Prince William will support efforts over the next five years to make the Fleming Initiative’s ambitious plans to overcome global antimicrobial resistance a reality. 

The announcement of Prince William’s patronage acted as a springboard for the initiative, significantly amplifying the reach of the Fleming Initiative’s message. 

As Professor Alison Holmes, Director of both Imperial College London's NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare Associated Infections and AMR, and Centre of Antimicrobial Optimisation (CAMO), said: “Antimicrobial resistance is a global pandemic. It's not a problem for the future or a problem overseas: antimicrobial resistance is a threat here and now. As with climate change, stopping antimicrobial resistance will require each of us to take personal responsibility, to change our behaviours for the greater good. Without a change across society, the healthcare we take for granted - having a baby, having surgery, receiving chemotherapy - will come with increasingly greater risks.” 

Clinician creators

Online content is an increasingly popular source of healthcare information for people looking for health advice or diagnosis. In 2021 alone, health content amassed over 110 billion views globally. 

Clinician creators are a key part of this ecosystem. They can have large audiences, with many healthcare-focused creators on YouTube having over one million followers. The connection that clinician creators build with their audiences, together with the credibility that YouTube’s Health Features offers them, makes clinician creators trusted and influential sources of information.

Collaborating with clinician creators through CHAIN will allow the Fleming Initiative to reach audiences across the breadth of society, raising awareness of the behaviour changes needed to tackle antimicrobial resistance. Online content can help democratise healthcare information, providing easier access to healthcare professionals and resources. 

Professor the Lord Ara Darzi, Executive Chair of the Fleming Initiative and Co-Chair of the Institute of Global Health Innovation said: “At the Fleming Centre, Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust are driving solutions to antimicrobial resistance that are co-designed with patients, the public and policy makers and underpinned by a rich and diverse evidence base. We are making behavioural science and public involvement the cornerstones of the radical change that’s needed to influence individual behaviour and policy decisions.” 

The Fleming Initiative: Keeping antibiotics working for the next 100 years. 

Founded on a partnership between Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, the Fleming Initiative will uniquely co-locate experts across research, behavioural science and policy to tackle antimicrobial resistance from all angles and on a united front.