Siegel+Gale Designs New 'HOPE Portal' for Childrens Hospital Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES, March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Siegel+Gale, one of the world's premier strategic branding companies, has created an innovative, inviting, child-friendly web-based portal that allows sick children and their families to easily find online resources about childhood cancer, blood disorders, and other rare diseases or conditions.

Launched in February, the HOPE Portal (www.searchhope.org) was commissioned by Childrens Hospital Los Angeles to radically expand the breadth and accessibility of its Patient & Family Education Resource Center. Siegel+Gale created, designed, and developed the portal to combine comprehensive information access with a design using illustrated drawings reminiscent of children's books.

"This site is talking about the toughest topics in the world -- severe childhood illnesses -- to the most vulnerable audiences in the world -- the children themselves and their parents and families," says Alan Siegel, Chairman and CEO of Siegel+Gale. "We had to strike a balance between not being scary and not backing away from reality. We found our answer in whimsy that appeals to both children and adults.

"We loved this assignment," Mr. Siegel continues. "Very rarely do we get the opportunity to really help those in need -- and the HOPE Portal is an authoritative online resource that truly benefits patients and the healthcare community."

"As one of the few hospitals with a dedicated patient education resource center and staff health educators, we are committed to helping patients and their families understand and locate resources to guide them through diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship," say Susan Gantan, MPH, senior health educator from the Division of Hematology-Oncology at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, and Kathleen Ruccione, MPH, RN, FAAN, co-director of the Hematology- Oncology Psychosocial and Education (HOPE) Program at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and professor of clinical pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

"We were eager to partner with Siegel+Gale on this project. We are thrilled that with the launch of the HOPE Portal, we are now able to extend these resources to a much broader community of patients and families."

Funding for the project was provided by Ronald McDonald House Charities.

To explore the HOPE Portal, go to www.searchhope.org. For more information on Siegel+Gale or the HOPE Portal, please contact Davia Temin or Megan Creydt of Temin and Company at 212-588-8788 or news@teminandco.com.

About Siegel+Gale

Siegel+Gale is one of the world's premier strategic branding companies. Since it was founded by Alan Siegel in 1969, the firm has applied the art and science of simplicity to create branding programs that have helped many of the world's best-known organizations excel. Driven by its philosophy of "Simple is Smart," Siegel+Gale has led the way in bringing innovation to the corporate branding field, including transforming complex, incomprehensible customer communications into plain English; helping clients create distinctive brand voices across all their communications; transporting brands onto the Internet; and aligning the brand experience for customers with the brand promise.

The firm has worked with an array of blue chip organizations, including American Express, Bayer, Lehman Brothers, Medtronic, Dell, Harley-Davidson, Lexus, Merrill Lynch, Yahoo!, Caterpillar, Sony, Motorola, the National Basketball Association, 3M, Dow and The Four Seasons Hotel Group.

Siegel+Gale has full-service offices in New York, Los Angeles, London and Dubai and strategic partnerships around the world. It is part of the Omnicom Group Inc. (www.omnicomgroup.com), a leading global marketing and corporate communications company. Omnicom's branded networks and numerous specialty firms provide advertising, strategic media planning and buying, direct and promotional marketing, public relations, and other specialty communications services to over 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries.

About Childrens Hospital Los Angeles

Founded in 1901, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles has been treating the most seriously ill and injured children in Los Angeles for more than a century, and it is acknowledged throughout the United States and around the world for its leadership in pediatric and adolescent health. Childrens Hospital is one of America's premier teaching hospitals, affiliated with the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California since 1932. It is a national leader in pediatric research.