Kaiser Permanente’s Educational Theatre Winner of Spring 2018 Digital Health Awards

Kaiser Permanente Southern California’s Educational Theatre, an award-winning program that uses live theater to inspire children, teens, and adults to make healthier choices, has received three digital health awards for its health educational webisodes from the Health Information Resource Center SM (HIRC), a clearinghouse for professionals who work in consumer health fields. The Digital Health Awards SM (DHA) honor the world’s best digital health resources. The DHA awards follow within weeks of Educational Theatre receiving two prestigious Silver Telly Awards for its webisodes.

Educational Theatre webisodes won a GOLD award for “The Test,” a MERIT award for “A Conflict of Interest,” and a SILVER award for the webisode, “Gonna Repeat.” The webisodes are extensions of the live-touring play, “What Goes Around,” which is an educational 60-minute play about sexually transmitted disease prevention. The webisodes dispel myths about STDs and encourage students to make healthy choices.

“Kaiser Permanente wants to encourage students to get tested and get resources. These webisodes are entertaining and funny. They help us blend our theatre production with the digital world together with social media,” said Gerry Farrell, director of Kaiser Permanente’s Educational Theatre Program. “We need to be in this space where we can communicate with kids where they live and learn. We’ve received positive responses from teachers, parents, school administrators, and the kids want more.”

Educational Theater’s “What Goes Around” play has now won five awards. Last month, at the 39th Annual Telly Award ceremony, the health-based STD Prevention program won two Silver Telly Awards in the category of Online Information for the webisodes, “Gonna Repeat” and “The Test.” They were selected from more than 12,000 entries across the country.