Cultural Context:
Lp(a) is a hidden hereditary cardiovascular risk factor affecting approximately one in five people worldwide.
Despite its prevalence and association with premature heart attacks and strokes, most people have never heard of it and have never been tested.
Part of the challenge is cultural. Heart disease is often viewed as the consequence of lifestyle choices rather than inherited risk.
At the same time, family medical history is frequently incomplete, forgotten, or never discussed.
Research shows physicians are significantly more likely to order an Lp(a) test when they uncover a family history of cardiovascular disease. Yet those critical details often live only in memory rather than medical records.
With potential treatments on the horizon, there is growing urgency to identify at-risk patients earlier.
Novartis sought to help healthcare professionals recognize family history as a powerful diagnostic tool and encourage conversations that could lead to increased testing.
Objective of Work (not a Synopsis):
The Guide was created to transform family history from forgotten information into actionable medical insight.
Rather than educating audiences through statistics or clinical data alone, the film visualizes the experience of remembering.
Viewers can’t help but become emotionally involved as they follow a woman through a dreamlike journey inside her family tree, guided by memories of relatives whose stories ultimately reveal a hidden cardiovascular risk.
Built by combining various handcrafted animation styles designed to evoke the feeling of entering a memory, the film turns an ordinary clinical question—"Has anyone in your family had heart disease?"—into an emotional exploration of memory, inheritance, and connection.
The project was designed to help patients with premature heart events communicate with healthcare professionals, particularly cardiologists, who are twice as likely to order an Lp(a) test when family history is identified.
By making that history vivid and memorable, the film encourages them to look beyond medical records and uncover information that may otherwise remain hidden.
The Guide was distributed through Novartis-owned channels and featured prominently at the American College of Cardiology congress, where it served as a centerpiece of disease-awareness efforts focused on Lp(a) testing.
Results:
The Guide reframed how healthcare professionals identify hidden cardiovascular risk and transformed family history into a powerful clinical trigger.
Early engagement signals show strong resonance within the cardiology community, with the film driving sustained attention in both digital and live congress environments.
More importantly, it shifted mindset: repositioning family history from a passive checkbox into an active diagnostic tool. Our ultimate goal is to increase LP(a) testing rates. While our measurable result, clicks through to the LP(a) informational website, remains confidential due client policies, we can share that 1) our desired outcomes has been exceeded, and as a result, 2) we are raising our projections for the year for LP(a) testing rates.
LIA - Pharma - Unbranded: Film - Gold
LIA - Pharma - Unbranded: Engagement & Education - Patient - Bronze
LIA - Pharma - Unbranded: Engagement & Education - HCP - Finalist
LIA - Pharma - Unbranded: Pharmaceuticals and Vaccines - Finalist
