Citation
Cogswell, Betty E. (1982). Family Physician: A New Role in Process of Development. Marriage & Family Review, 4(1-2), 1-30.Abstract
Family physicians, the most recently recognized specialists in American medicine, are in the enigmatic situation of developing the occupational role which they simultaneously occupy. In 1969 the Council on Medical Education of the American Medical Association (AMA) formally approved family medicine as the 20th specialty. Both prior to and since this date the emergence of this new discipline has been heavily rooted in reforms to correct deficits in contemporary practices of patient care. Family physicians are dedicated to providing continuing, comprehensive, primary care to families. This approach is viewed as a corrective for the fragmented, episodic, highly bureaucratic, and technocratic care many patients now receive. Interwoven with family physicians' reform efforts are their concerns with establishing a firm position of status, influence, and academic respectability within the institutional structure of medicine. These two issues-reform and familymedicine's position within medicine-have influenced and most likely will continue to influence the process of development of this new role.