AFP Podcast Passes a Million Downloads

The 2017-2018 podcast team: (Back row, left to right) Jake Anderson, DO, Evan Werk, MD, Joanna Campodonico, MD, and Steven R. Brown, MD; (middle row) Michelle Hamilton, DO, Sarah Coles, MD, and Tyler Coles; (front row) Shari Pressley, MD, Kellie Wheeler, MD, and Sue Dash, MD.

We released the first episode of the American Family Physician (AFP) Podcast in December 2015. AFP Podcast is a collaboration between American Family Physician, the most-read journal in primary care, and faculty and residents of the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix Family Medicine Residency.

Today, the podcast passed a significant milestone: 1,000,000 episode downloads! We began counting downloads in May 2016, so this milestone was achieved in less than two years. The AFP Podcast audience continues to grow, and our listeners are now downloading episodes an average of over 45,000 times per month. A podcast with over 20,000 downloads per month, averaged over a year, is considered “high impact” for scholarly work. AFP Podcast is regularly a Top 10 medical podcast on iTunes, and has over 170 five star ratings on the platform. Listeners to the podcast are engaged. The credits at the end of each episode have been read by medical students, residents and practicing physicians in 39 states and 4 countries. The @AFPPodcast Twitter account has over 1,300 followers and an average of over 30,000 impressions per month.

Additionally, AFP Podcast has received a 2017 Gold EXCEL Award from Association Media & Publishing: Educational Podcast category.

Why Podcasts Matter

The role of podcasts in medical education is growing. With the emergence of new technology, changes in learning preferences, and resident work-hour restrictions, asynchronous methods of education are increasingly relevant. Eighty-nine percent of emergency medicine residents listen to podcasts regularly and 72 percent report podcasts change their clinical practice. Eighty-six percent of these emergency residents report podcasts as their favorite form of medical education because of portability, ease of use and ability to listen while doing sometime else.

We have received multiple comments from practicing family physicians that the AFP Podcast is useful as an American Board of Family Medicine preparation resource. Clerkship directors tell us they recommend AFP Podcast to students in required family medicine clerkships.

Podcasts are also a useful platform for exploring not just practice-changing clinical evidence, but the humanistic aspects of medical practice. The 2016 post “25 podcasts that every family physician should listen to” remains one of the most read articles on the AFP Community Blog. Recommendations from that post include podcasts related to public health, improving learning, patient stories and medical economics.

The podcast Greyscale, produced by family physician Ben Davis, explores the physician/patient relationship and its impact on practice. Sawbones, hosted by family physician Sydnee McElroy and her husband Justin McElroy, discusses medical history and is regularly ranked as a Top 100 podcast in the iTunes “Comedy” category.

Podcasting Quality

While many residents, medical students and physicians are listening to medical podcasts, there is scant literature related to podcast quality. How do we know which podcasts should be recommended? How can the AFP Podcast be sure we are producing a quality product, worthy of family physicians and learners everywhere?

Two recent studies have examined medical education podcast quality. Both acknowledge that study of this topic is in its infancy. Key criteria for excellence include credibility (transparency, trustworthiness, avoidance of bias), content (professionalism, academic rigor) and design (aesthetics, interaction, functionality, ease of use).

Our editorial team will continue to strive to meet these metrics. Engagement from listeners is essential to these efforts. As we say on the credits at end of each episode: “Please send us your thoughts by emailing @email or tweeting @AFPpodcast.” Engagement from listeners will help us improve AFP Podcast for the next million downloads and beyond.

Editor’s note: Steven R. Brown, MD, is the editor of the AFP Podcast and an AFP Contributing Editor. He is the program director for the Family Medicine Residency program and clinical associate professor for the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the UA College of Medicine – Phoenix. Dr. Brown wrote this story about the impact of the AFP Podcast for the American Family Physician community blog, published April 16, 2018.