The Diabetes Project That Will Empower
A suite of videos for Hertfordshire and West Essex ICS, highlighting the education and support courses available to people living with diabetes.
CLIENT
Hertfordshire and West Essex ICS
SECTOR
Public sector · Healthcare · Patient education
SERVICES
Interview filming · Patient testimonials · Editing · Final delivery
The brief
The Central East ICB runs several structured education courses for people living with diabetes, DAFNE for those managing type 1 diabetes, DESMOND and EMPOWER for type 2, and X-PERT, each designed to help patients genuinely understand and self-manage their condition rather than just follow instructions.
The challenge was making five genuinely different courses feel distinct and relevant to the right patients, while keeping every video approachable rather than clinical, since these were aimed at people newly navigating a diagnosis.
The videos needed to work as genuine encouragement for patients considering whether to attend, not just an information leaflet on screen.
Diabetes videos DESMOND Diabetes in Hertfordshire and West Essex
The approach
Working closely with the ICS team, the priority was letting real patients carry each video, since their genuine experience mattered more than any presenter or narration could.
Rather than five generic explainer videos, the aim was content that helped each audience understand:
- What each course actually involves, day to day
- Why a genuine peer group made a real difference to patients
- What changed for patients after attending
- Why self-managing a condition well is worth the initial effort
Each video was built around genuine patient testimony, filmed at the courses themselves rather than in a studio, keeping the setting authentic.
Production
The project involved producing a genuine suite of videos, delivered ahead of schedule and on budget throughout. This included:
- Filming two DAFNE videos, show casing the course for managing type 1 diabetes through dose adjustment for normal eating
- Filming DESMOND and EMPOWER, structured education courses for people living with type 2 diabetes
- Filming X-PERT, offering structured diabetes education for adults with type 2 diabetes
- Capturing genuine, unscripted patient testimony from people who had actually attended each course
- Editing each video into a short, genuinely watchable piece rather than a long-form explainer
Throughout, working closely with a medical team ensured every video stayed clinically accurate while remaining warm and human rather than sounding like a leaflet.
The result
The finished videos gave the NHS genuine, patient-led content they could point newly diagnosed people towards, rather than a purely clinical explanation of what each course involved.
It was, in the ICB’s team’s own words, a great experience working alongside an amazing team at the NHS, with every project delivered ahead of schedule and on budget throughout.
By combining honest patient testimony with a genuinely quick turnaround, the project became content the NHS could use with real confidence, exactly the kind of dependable, high quality service that turned a single commission into an ongoing relationship.
Why this project worked
This project shows what happens when real patients are given space to speak honestly about a diagnosis and the support that helped them manage it, content that reassures in a way clinical information alone never quite can.