14 Jun 2022

Biomedical Science Day 2022 Round-Up

We celebrated Biomedical Science Day on 9th June, with our members taking the lead in demonstrating the importance of our profession #AtTheHeartOfHealthcare.

 
Our largest celebration of Biomedical Science yet!

Our 6th annual Biomedical Science Day was our largest and most successful ever.

  • Our hashtags trended in the top 5 nationally and extended to a reach of over 4 million.
  • Prominent politicians and some of the most influential organisations and individuals across the healthcare sector tweeted their support.
  • Thousands of our members took part across the UK, virtually and face-to-face.

For #BiomedicalScienceDay2022, members could fully return to celebrating in-person; many public engagement events and laboratory tours took place up and down the country, and hundreds of members set up stands for the public and medical colleagues in hospital foyers. Nevertheless, celebrations continued enthusiastically online, with members able to follow along and engage via our social media channels.

With the profession more visible than ever following COVID-19, this year's celebrations focused on expanding upon our success to showcase the extensive breadth of knowledge and skills of the profession across a wide range of specialisms in Biomedical Science while rightly celebrating our members' hard work and contributions to society.

Social Media

As ever, participation was high across social media, as we encouraged our members to use the hashtags #BiomedicalScienceDay2022 and #AtTheHeartOfHealthcare to promote their activities.

On Twitter, #BiomedicalScienceDay2022 trended in the UK top 5 for most of the day and was used in posts 4,212 times, with 1,467 accounts sharing the posts. Some of the top accounts posting and using the hashtag included UKHSA, Lord Bethall and best-selling author Dr Amir Khan.

On Facebook, over 65,000 people viewed our Facebook gallery on the day.

Over on Instagram and TikTok, members and NHS trusts shared even more creative photos, and videos of their celebrations, hosted live streams explaining their role and toured their lab. Once again, members who tagged @IBMScience were included in our Instagram and Facebook story chronicling the highlights throughout the day. You can still view this story on our Instagram account under highlights.

Public Engagement, Activity Packs and Competitions 

Communications teams in hospitals, trusts and university laboratories once again handed their social media accounts over to their pathology staff and allowed them to celebrate and inform their followers about the skills and expertise involved in their practice. 

We've had over 700 entries to our competitions – with members sharing their fantastic photos and video submissions via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and through our email inboxes, including hundreds for the popular 'Biomedical Bake' and 'Biomedical Meme' contests. 

IBMS President Debra Padgett supported the foyer stand on the day at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation

Members also set up their own public engagement events with 264 event packs distributed for members' events across the UK and 32 members' activities were granted funding totalling over £14,000 of grant money.

You can see many photos our members shared in our photo gallery. If you sent your pictures taken on the day, it's likely you will have ended up in there (or will do in the coming days).

Tahmina Hussain hosted another popular 'support hub' webinar providing career advice and tips for students on the day; the webinar recieved very positive feedback from attendees. 

One entrant literally went a'bove and beyond' for their 'Best artistic biomedical science photo', climbing 164m to the top of Calton Hill in Edinburgh for a stunning vista.

Here's a Yummy Biomedical Bake submitted by Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust:

You can view all of our video entrants below:

Politicians

Thank you to our members who again contacted their local politicians. We had more political support than ever before - many using the messaging we had written for our members. We had Tweets:

Caroline Dineage MP - Conservative MP for Gosport

Rachel Hopkins MP - Labour MP for Luton South

Ben Everitt MP - Conservative MP for Milton Keynes North

Stuart Anderson MP - Conservative MP for Wolverhampton South West

Liz Twist MP - Labour MP for Blaydon

Karen Bradley MP - Conservative MP for Staffordshire Moorlands

Martyn Day MP - SNP MP for Linlithgow and East Falkirk

David Duguid MP - Conservative & Unionist MP for Banff & Buchan

Colm Gildernew MLA – Sinn Fein MLA for Fermanagh South Tyrone

Lord Bethell

Popular Tweets and Shares 

Here are some of the most popular tweets and accounts that shared our messages throughout the day:

We opened the day with a special message video message from our president Debra Padgett:

 

Media Personality and author Dr Amir Khan MP expressed his appreciation for the profession to his 197 K followers, the post received over 970 likes:

 NHS England & Improvement - 509.6 K Followers 

 UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) - 524.7K Followers

Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) - 37.2K Followers 

— RC of Pathologists (@RCPath) June 9, 2022

Science Council - 5824 Followers 

We want to once again thank all of our members who were involved in celebrating #BiomedicalScienceDay2022. It was excellent to see the profession #AtTheHeartOfHealthcare rise up with such enthusiasm across social media, through face-to-face events and through entering our competitions. We can't wait to see you again next year.

This is how we ended the day:

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