AAFP Puts Focus on Digital Products

In an effort to optimize technology, improve organizational efficiency and align with members’ calls for the AAFP to be a good steward of the environment, the Academy is phasing out many consumable inventory items, including paper-based products, flash drives and CDs.

The changes will not affect the availability of print versions of AAFP journals, or a printed syllabus for the on-demand or live versions of the popular Family Medicine Board Review activities.

Syllabi for other live national courses and syllabi, flash drives and CDs from more than a dozen on-demand educational activities will be discontinued July 31. Products with remaining inventory can be ordered until that date, and digital versions of the products will remain available.

Additionally, printed course manuals for Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics and Basic Life Support in Obstetrics, as well as BLSO mnemonic reference cards, will be discontinued Dec. 1. Both print manuals and the BLSO cards can still be ordered through that date or while supplies last.

ALSO mnemonic reference cards will continue to be available in physical form, and a digital version of the BLSO cards is expected to be available later this year.

The digital-first initiative will not affect distribution of the laminated, full-color copies of immunization schedules that are developed by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in conjunction with the AAFP and other medical specialty organizations each year. Printing and mailing of those resources to AAFP members are typically provided through external funding.

The AAFP has had policy regarding environmental health since 1969, and it was updated by the Congress of Delegates in 2019. The COD and the National Congress of Student Members have both adopted, or affirmed as policy, multiple resolutions in recent years that directed the Academy to adopt green policies regarding AAFP events.

The Academy is a founding member of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, which strives to “organize, empower and amplify the voice of America’s doctors to convey how climate change is harming our health and how climate solutions will improve it.”