Abstract
Objective
Accessible, community-driven education is critical to improving early detection and survivorship outcomes in breast cancer. The Breast Care Centre of Excellence (BCCE) in South Africa launched a webinar series in 2025 to raise public awareness and support survivorship education. This study evaluates the programme’s community reach, engagement, and responsiveness with the aim of guiding future digital education initiatives in oncology to increase community awareness.
Materials and Methods
A retrospective analysis of 14 webinars held between January and October 2025 was conducted. Engagement metrics included registrations (n = 1,731), live attendance (n = 1,179), public reach via information-page interactions (n = 9,073), and unique on-demand views (n = 733). Attendance trends and engagement were analysed.
Results
Across 14 sessions, 1,179 live attendees were recorded from 1,731 registrations, a 68.1% conversion rate. The programme achieved substantial public visibility, with 9,073 page interactions, indicating strong community interest beyond direct attendees. Unique views (n = 733) represented a 59.3% extended reach beyond live participation, extending educational access over time. This is significant, as only 70% of the webinars were made available for on-demand viewing after the event, further reinforcing the programme’s reach. Webinars on nutrition and personalised oncology generated the highest engagement and sustained replay interest, highlighting demand for practical, actionable, and lifestyle-relevant oncology education.
Conclusion
The BCCE’s public oncology webinar series represents a cost-effective, scalable, and culturally adaptive model for cancer education in low- and middle-income settings. High registration-to-attendance conversion, broad community reach, and sustained asynchronous engagement demonstrate durable audience interest and growing public trust. Future programmes will incorporate structured follow-up surveys to measure knowledge retention and behavioural change at 4–6 weeks, and expand cross-disciplinary sessions (e.g., oncology × nutrition) to deepen educational continuity and impact.
