LOOKING BACK ON A YEAR OF MEMBER ENGAGEMENT DATA

In early 2022, the San Francisco Marin Medical Society (SFMMS) went live with a first-of-its-kind physician engagement tracking system. The purpose of the system is to quantify, track, and systematically increase the engagement of physician members with SFMMS.

Why bother tracking and increasing engagement? We've made this key, strategic investment because we believe that understanding if and how physicians engage with their professional society is an effective response to the experience of physicians practicing in an increasingly consolidated labor force.

That experience can, at times, feel at odds with the identity of the physician as an autonomous, independent decision-maker. The literature on physician wellness bears this out: physicians in highly consolidated labor markets are more likely to report feeling disconnected from their profession, from their community, and from emerging innovations, and there's a relationship between engagement with one's professional association and professional satisfaction.

Now that we have over a year's worth of data under our belts, we're beginning to understand our members like never before: what inspires them to act, and how best to empower them. We understand where every physician in our counties sits on our ‘ladder of engagement’ and so can be strategic in offering them practical, timely opportunities that fit their needs and reflect their values.

We understand engagement, roughly, as follows:

• Light engagers prefer to interact with the Medical Society electronically, by opening our weekly emails and clicking on online advocacy campaigns.

• Medium engagers, in addition to the above, will attend virtual events and trainings.

• Heavy engagers, in addition to the above, will attend in-person events and may consider contributing to the SFMMS Political Action Committee or Community Service Foundation.

• Super heavy engagers, in addition to the above, will run for elected positions within the Society or with the California Medical Association.

Here are a few early takeaways:

• We see comparable amounts of engagement across practice types, from small and solo private practice to large, integrated health systems. However, the way in which these members engage can be different.

• As expected, private practice is more likely to access practice support tools. Physicians in integrated health systems are more likely to access advocacy and volunteerism opportunities.

• Our Marin-based physicians are slightly more likely to engage with the Medical Society than San Francisco-based physicians.

• Primary care specialties, like family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics, are more likely to participate in advocacy campaigns.

• Permanente Medical Group physicians engage with a notably higher intensity than physicians in other large, integrated health systems, and are more likely to seek leadership positions.

• Our Super Heavy engagers engage with about 160 times more intensity than our median engager.

• In the coming months, we'll build on this engagement tracking system by advancing marketing automation, and — the brass ring — working to demonstrate a concrete relationship between physician engagement and physician wellness.

I believe that physician engagement should no longer just be organized medicine's "how." It should be our "why."

I'm excited to share more with you soon in the latest SFMMS Annual Report.