To the Editor:

Family Practice Management (FPM) would be greatly enhanced if the word “provider” was banned from print and replaced with the title of the medical professional the article is discussing. I am a physician, I did not graduate from provider school, I do not have a provider license and the American Association of Providership does not certify me.

Will my fellow colleagues join me in not only displaying a high degree of professionalism in their conversation and writings, but also in insisting we be addressed as physicians or doctors?

Editor’s response:

FPM uses “provider” to refer to non-physician health care providers – for instance, in the phrase “midlevel providers” – and to groups of (pardon the expression) health care providers that include individuals from more than one profession, as in the sentence, “Our clinic has 20 providers, 15 of whom are family physicians.” It is our policy not to use the term as a synonym for “physician.”