AFP Online: We're on a Mission

KENNETH W. LIN, MD, MPH, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, District of Columbia

Am Fam Physician. 2016 Dec 15;94(12):966.

One morning on my way to work, I listened to an episode of AFP Podcast1 that was recorded live at the 2016 National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students. The podcast's catchy theme song—“We're on a mission: delivering the best from American Family Physician”—also sums up our goal for AFP Online. As associate deputy editor for AFP Online, I work with medical and professional editors to select the “best” journal content from our full online archive of material, organize and repackage it, and make it accessible to readers in convenient desktop, mobile, and mobile app formats. Our online team shares additional content and perspectives on the AFP Community Blog (http://afpjournal.blogspot.com) and on our Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/AFPJournal) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/AFPJournal) pages. For example, Facebook features a short video message to AFP's social media followers, filmed during our annual editorial meeting (https://www.facebook.com/AFPJournal/videos/1253672881327697/).

A previous editorial described the ongoing evolution of AFP Online.2 Since then, we have continued to enhance our online offerings. The electronic table of contents for each new issue, sent to approximately 125,000 readers, provides instant access to print content and bonus online-only features such as Medicine by the Numbers,3 which is also available in an RSS feed (https://www.aafp.org/rest/afp/medBynumbersDeptfeed.atoms.xml). Our three Apple and Android apps—AFP By Topic, AFP Journal (also available on Kindle Fire devices), and Photo Quiz—remain unique digital learning platforms (https://www.aafp.org/journals/afp/explore/app.html). Also, some features of our mobile-enabled website, such as the Choosing Wisely recommendations search tool (https://www.aafp.org/afp/recommendations/search.htm), effectively function like an app on smartphones.

Last year, our website underwent a major redesign to improve ease of navigation and enable several new features, including a Favorites tool that allows readers to build a personalized collection of clinical resources using links from any website (https://www.aafp.org/journals/afp/explore/website-improvements.html). Readers can now also search all of our patient handouts (https://www.aafp.org/afp/handouts/viewAll.htm) and diagnostic and treatment algorithms (https://www.aafp.org/afp/algorithms/viewAll.htm) by discipline and topic. Online page impressions and the number of unique browsers accessing the website have climbed steadily over the past few years (Table 1), and total continuing medical education quizzes completed online for credit also reveal consistent usage and periods of growth (Table 2).

We would love to receive feedback about your experience with AFP Online and hear suggestions for further improvement. Let us know what you think by e-mailing us at afpjournal@aafp.org, by posting a comment in our online article commenting section or on our Facebook page, or by tweeting to @AFPJournal.