May 2002 • Volume 8 • Number 5 |
Family physicians serve in many roles -- as clinicians, educators, humanitarians, researchers and leaders -- yet all share the common goal of bridging the gap between individual and community health. So said AAFP Board Chair Richard Roberts, M.D., J.D., of Madison, Wis., April 8 when he delivered the Thomas L. Stern Lectureship during the 2002 Residency Assistance Program Workshop for Faculty and Staff of Family Practice Residencies in Kansas City, Mo.
One need only reflect on the specialty's history, said Roberts, and it's not difficult to understand why FPs are uniquely suited to the task. Specifically, with the birth of medical specialization right around the time of World War II, it started becoming apparent that something was going awry. The concept of the patient as a "whole person" was being subsumed by the concept of the patient as a set of potential disease management opportunities.
Enter family medicine. Enter continuity of care over a lifetime. From there, it became a series of short leaps to expand care for an individual to care for a family -- and then for a community -- and then for an entire population.
This is where FPs find themselves today, according to Roberts. Small wonder that "Americans depend on family doctors like no one else when it comes to health care," he said.
After all, "Who's the expert here?" asked Roberts, noting that, for example, FPs care for more patients with cardiovascular disease than any other specialists. "In my view, it's us," he said.
FP Report is published by the
AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2002 by
American Academy of Family Physicians.