Langlieb, one of the originators of the project and an instructor in the Department of Health Policy and Management in the School of Public Health, envisions a day when children of all ages will have a steady and reliable source of useful information about the various health issues confronting them on the sometimes-perilous journey to adulthood. In order to realize this goal, Langlieb last year helped establish and now directs The Boosters Project, a public health promotion effort funded by SmithKline Beecham and The Chesapeake Health Plan Foundation. The Barney Safety video was the project's first attempt at melding public health expertise with established entertainment outlets to produce a new combination of message and medium. A physician by training, Langlieb developed Boosters with colleague Louis Francescutti and others during their preventive medicine residency. Our mission is to transmit health information more systematically and more understandably.
Research produces facts that are all too often packaged for other researchers.
We want to deliver this information to the biggest audience possible. This process of education began with the Barney Safety video itself. Many of those letters in particular were concerned about issues of child abduction. Abduction is such a scary issue for parents. It plays upon their heartstrings.