Academy Launches Viral Video Campaign to Educate Consumers About Family Medicine

The AAFP has created a series of video vignettes as part of a viral campaign designed to promote the role of family medicine in today's health care system to a global audience.

The five videos are available on the video-sharing Web site YouTube, as well as on a number of online news outlets and weblogs that focus on health care.

"The purpose of this campaign is to have a timely, yet lasting, presence across the World Wide Web that will help educate key audiences about the role and value of family medicine so they understand who family physicians are, what they do and how they fit into the larger health care picture," says Sarah Thomas, director of the AAFP Communications Division.

The five videos highlight

Although the videos are intended for a broad consumer audience, family physicians are encouraged to post the videos to their practice Web sites and share them with their patients. "To create a successful 'viral' effect, we encourage AAFP members to share these videos with their patients, colleagues, friends and family members," says Thomas. "By sharing these videos, family physicians have the opportunity to reach out to members of the public who the Academy generally cannot reach through traditional media."

For information on embedding the videos into a practice Web site, contact Adam Lee or Amanda Denning in the Public Relations Department at the AAFP.