October 2000 • Post-Assembly Edition • Dallas
Campaign begins in 2001
Multimillion-dollar effort will publicize specialty's strengths
"The Academy is getting ready to launch a public awareness campaign designed to help strengthen the position of today's family physicians among opinion leaders and consumers," (then) Board Chair Lanny Copeland, M.D., of Albany, Ga., told the Congress of Delegates. He displayed a promotional piece about the campaign.
Academy members have been saying they want America to know what today's family physician has to offer. Their wish will get a head start on coming true, beginning next February.
Ads about family practice will run in USA Today and The Washington Post in February, the same month AAFP will sponsor National Public Radio's Morning Edition and All Things Considered. These media tend to reach educated audiences, including policy-makers.
"The early 2001 timing couldn't be better, with a new administration and newly elected Congress sorting out national health care policy priorities for action," (then) Board Chair Lanny Copeland, M.D., of Albany, Ga., told the AAFP Congress of Delegates Sept. 18.
Constituent chapters will be able to run the ads in state or local papers with matching grants from AAFP.
Academy members have said in surveys, meetings and interviews that they felt a need for better recognition of the specialty, especially by decision makers.
Research by the nationally recognized Mellman Group shows family physicians maintain an enviable position among doctors, said Copeland. "People identified family physicians as listening, caring doctors who know their patients and take time with them -- the exact qualities they desire in a personal doctor and find lacking in the current health system."
The campaign will reinforce the public's perception of family physicians and highlight family physicians' knowledge of up-to-date treatments and technologies.
The new publicity efforts, plus AAFP's ongoing public relations projects, will dovetail.
The three-year campaign has a $1.5 million budget for its first year.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2000 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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