Connecting with the Media: Informing the Public about the Importance of Medical Regulation
Over the past year, FSMB’s media relations team responded to frequent inquiries from U.S. and international news outlets on a wide range of topics such as telemedicine, opioid prescribing, artificial intelligence, and physician discipline. Regular engagement with members of the news media led to more than 3,000 print and online news stories mentioning FSMB and its work to support the nation’s state medical boards.
The growing media interest in the work of state medical boards was reflected in over 40,000 news articles mentioning them in the last year. These articles appeared in prominent publications such as The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New England Journal of Medicine, Medscape, and many other domestic and international news outlets and medical journals.
Enhancing FSMB’s Digital Presence
In 2023-2024, the communications team helped expand and enhance FSMB’s digital footprint through several website refresh projects for sites that support patients and our healthcare system. DocInfo.org, a free-to-use, physician search tool, received a complete overhaul in 2024 to improve the site’s functionality and create a more seamless user experience. To increase engagement with the Provider Bridge platform, a redesign of ProviderBridge.org was completed to encourage more physicians, PAs, and nurses, to register for Provider Bridge and support our nation’s response to emergencies and natural disasters. Work is underway to deliver a new and improved FSMB.org in 2025.
Meeting Strategic Needs: Evolved Visual Identity and Messaging
FSMB completed a year-long effort to revamp its messaging and visual identity to better serve the needs of its member boards, customers, healthcare partners and the public. The focus of this work was to help bring to life many elements of FSMB’s recently updated Strategic Plan and ensure consistent, clear, and compelling messaging. This work produced a revamped brand platform with positioning statement, updated organizational tagline(s), key messages to explain the benefits and value of FSMB products and services, and a refreshed visual identity to ensure a seamless experience across all FSMB service areas, communications materials and digital platforms.
Journal of Medical Regulation
The Journal of Medical Regulation (JMR), published continuously by FSMB since 1913, had another year of growth and innovation. JMR explores interdisciplinary trends and topics of interest to the national and international community of medical regulators, providing valuable insights and research to support their critical work.
Tracking Workforce Trends: 7th Census of U.S. Licensed Physicians Published
In June 2023, JMR published the FSMB's seventh Census of Licensed Physicians in the United States. This biennial publication, first introduced in 2010, provides valuable demographic data about the U.S. physician workforce to the state medical board community, policymakers, and researchers.
The latest Census article, drawing from FSMB's Physician Data Center, included information on more than one million physicians licensed to practice in the U.S. in 2022. It examined significant shifts in various data categories, such as medical degree type, specialty certification status, gender, and age, tracking trends over the past 15 years.
The growing importance of the FSMB Census as a resource for those interested in physician workforce issues was evident, as the Census article was the most highly accessed JMR article online in 2023.
New JMR Digital Archive: Accessing a Century of Medical Regulation History
In 2023, JMR partnered with JSTOR, a digital library, to archive more than a century of back issues. Published under various titles since 1913, including Federation Bulletin and Journal of Medical Licensure and Discipline, the journal chronicles the rich history of FSMB, state medical boards, and the medical profession.
This new digital archive, containing hundreds of issues, is available free to state medical boards, scholars, and others interested in the evolution of medical regulation.
Growing Worldwide Readership: JMR Connects the Global Medical Regulatory Community
As healthcare systems worldwide become increasingly interconnected, JMR continues to expand its international reach. The journal actively seeks submissions from authors outside the United States and explores ways to grow its global readership.
In 2023, JMR saw a significant increase in online accesses from 140 countries, continuing a trend of growing international interest. The journal received nearly 30,000 online accesses in 2023, with 58% from the U.S. and 42% from international readers.
JMR also enhanced its online presence at JMRonline.org, featuring the JMR podcast series with in-depth author interviews and expanding its social media engagement with a new LinkedIn page.
