April 2000 • Volume 6 • Number 4
AFP at 50 years: still the same winning philosophy
The April 1 American Family Physician marks the publication's 50th anniversary. In 1950, members of the (then) American Academy of General Practice, as well as others in the medical, publishing and advertising communities, greeted the debut issue of AFP's predecessor, GP, with much ballyhoo.
This cartoon accompanied "The Doctor's Bag -- What Should Be in It," from the April 1950 GP.Hailed by one reader as "the finest-looking medical journal in the world," GP eschewed the stodgy image common among medical journals in favor of a fresh, innovative approach. Mac Cahal, J.D., the Academy's chief executive officer and managing publisher of the fledgling publication, characterized it as a "medical magazine" rather than a journal. The idea, he wrote in an early issue, was to ensure that GP would not be doomed to languish in "dusty libraries," serving only as a "repository of 'contributions to the literature.'" Rather, GP was designed to serve as a resource tool for the practicing physician.
To that end, GP featured short, practical clinical articles replete with illustrations. Other components covered topics ranging from news of the Academy to disease-state management to governmental regulations. In short, GP had it all.
But for one early GP reader, it was the clinical articles that drew and held his interest.
"I saved a lot of them because they were pertinent and practical," said Stanley J. Siwek, M.D., of Harrison, N.J. "And I filed them accordingly, so that I could refer to them at another time."
He stored his copies of GP and, later, AFP in a playhouse in the back yard, spending hour upon hour out there clipping articles of interest. Once, he became so absorbed that he forgot the beer he'd brought out with him. When he finally picked up the can, he found a slug crawling into it. Pretty compelling reading, surely.
Today, in AAFP readership surveys, AFP is ranked as the favorite journal six times more often than any other. This continued success can be attributed to its hands-on philosophy.
In 1950, content was driven largely by reader input. It's a formula that still works today, according to current AFP editor and Stanley Siwek's son, Jay Siwek, M.D., of Washington, D.C.: "That's been my goal -- to make it a reader-friendly, practical reference for FPs. I like to think of the practicing docs out there -- what is the information they need to better diagnose and treat patients? -- and think of that as the guiding principle of what we publish."
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2000 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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