The AAFP’s strategic plan: Strengthening family medicine

hero image of smiling doctor and AAFP strategic pillars

The American Academy of Family Physicians' (AAFP) 2026 to 2028 strategic plan guides everything we do to realize the full potential of family medicine for our members and the patients they care for.

Our mission is to improve the health of your patients, families and communities by serving our members' needs with professionalism and creativity. The strategic plan is the map that gets us there.

It focuses the AAFP’s efforts on elevating family medicine, enhancing well-being, improving systems and strengthening our future.

2026 to 2028 strategic plan

  • Elevating family medicine

    We influence the public audience with strategies that make family physicians an essential voice in all health care decisions:

    • Physician recognition: Bringing family physicians and their impact into the spotlight
    • Patient choice: Bringing family physicians to the forefront of patient care options
    • Policy decisions: Influencing policymakers to advance family medicine and guide public health policy
  • Enhancing well-being

    We cultivate family physicians' wellness with strategies that increase professional fulfillment:

    • Empower family physicians: Identifying and mitigating burnout factors
    • Build community: Promoting collaboration and engagement among physicians
    • Evolve professional development: Supporting career growth aspirations
    • Expand clinical competency: Facilitating evidence-based comprehensive care
  • Improving systems

    We make clinical practice more effective with strategies that drive innovation and improvement in investment, payment and operating models:

    • Practice support: Providing resources members need for a thriving practice
    • Investment in primary care: Increasing the allocation of health care spending to improve outcomes
    • Payment models: Expanding and optimizing the ways physicians are paid
  • Strengthening our future

    We cultivate the profession of family medicine with strategies that attract, retain and guide a family physician workforce that meets the needs of their unique communities:

    • Influencing student choice: Engaging the next generation of family physicians
    • Resident activation: Serving as a career launchpad
    • New physician growth: Supporting the journey from new to established physician

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