Osteopathic Pride campaign celebrates being #DOProud

In case a few osteopathic physicians and students need a reminder of the critical role they play in providing distinctive whole-person care to millions of patients across the nation each day, it’s headed their way in the form of the AOA’s new Osteopathic Pride campaign.

Throughout the coming months, a host of messages including videos, social media posts, articles, emails and digital ads will run simultaneously with an external campaign aimed at increasing awareness and understanding of osteopathic medicine among the general public. Together, these campaigns will amplify the voice of DOs and publicize the tremendous impact they make every day in the lives of millions of patients across the country.

Using #DOProud, the AOA will celebrate DOs and osteopathic medical students and boldly share their story.

And who better to tell that story than osteopathic physicians and medical students?

Working with brand strategy media content company Two x Four, the AOA invited nearly 20 members of the osteopathic profession who practice across a broad spectrum of specialties to Chicago for the project’s marketing collateral photo and video shoot, so chances are, you might recognize some of the “actors” in this campaign.

Campaign goals include highlighting osteopathic medicine’s philosophy of whole-person, compassionate care and inspiring pride within the osteopathic community by amplifying the distinctiveness of the profession and its tremendous contributions to public health.

AOA Chief Executive Officer Kevin M. Klauer, DO, EJD, says the results will show these objectives were achieved.

“One of the mission critical factors we identified at the outset of our planning process was ensuring this campaign doesn’t stop with communicating our distinctive approach to patient care, but also celebrates who we are as a profession,” says Dr. Klauer. “As 11.5% of the physician population, we are large enough that we cannot be ignored, but exclusive enough to create a demand for the body, mind, spirit approach of osteopathic care. We should be very proud of who we are; we’ve earned it!”

In one of the campaign’s first videos, released late last month, more than a dozen osteopathic physicians and students are filmed treating patients and performing one of the skills that sets osteopathic physicians apart—listening.

The video explains that “you took an oath to practice osteopathic medicine, to not only treat the health of the body, but to care for the mind and the human spirit as well, offering a distinctive, whole-person approach that emphasizes partnering with your patients to promote optimal health. Like you, the AOA has taken an oath to relentlessly support you and your work in every possible way.”

The campaign’s first Facebook post on Dec. 2, which featured AOA Board of Trustees member Teresa Hubka, DO, Carl Atallah, DO, Edie Waskel, DO, and Edward Ng, DO, remains one of the month’s most popular with more than 13,000 impressions.

The #DOProud campaign will run through 2022.

Osteopathic physicians and students can follow along with both campaigns by going to the landing page at osteopathic.org/campaign, and by following the AOA on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Related reading:

The doctor will hear you now: The AOA’s new osteopathic public awareness campaign