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STFM has increasingly recognized and accepted the importance of research as a core part of family medicine and the Society’s mission. In our roles as STFM research committee chair (PD) and communications committee chair (MR), we’ve seen firsthand the growth of research as a core component of the society’s activities. It is gratifying to be able to report that research has a prominent place within STFM’s programs and strategic planning. Issues regarding family medicine research are regularly and actively discussed at STFM Board meetings, and there is a striking level of research interest and expertise among the current members of the Board of Directors.
The STFM Research Committee is an extremely active group, coordinating a large block of dedicated time at the Annual Spring Conference for research papers, posters, and skill-building presentations; monitoring the family medicine research literature to select the annual STFM Best Paper Award winners; and coordinating a Resident and Student Research Forum that provides residents and students the opportunity to present original research to their peers. The STFM Annual Spring Conference trails only the North American Primary Care Research Group’s (NAPCRG) Annual Meeting among all of our discipline’s conferences in the number of research presentations, with a large majority of those presentations representing clinical research.
Over the past several years, the fellow representatives of the STFM Research Committee and NAPCRG have closely collaborated to sponsor a fellows’ e-mail discussion list and multiple support activities at our annual meetings, including fellows’ works-in-progress sessions. As a result, family medicine research fellows have 2 family medicine organizational meetings where they can be assured of a welcome and a place to get feedback on their developing research efforts.
The Research Committee monitors current research issues that might be of interest to and important for our members and facilitates 2 to 3 research skill-building seminars at each STFM Annual Spring Conference. Research Committee members also help facilitate the research workshop of the STFM Faculty Development Series, which is periodically offered in conjunction with STFM conferences. This workshop orients novice faculty researchers to the basics of research design, planning, implementation, and communication.
STFM also supports active liaison relationships with the NAPCRG Board, the NAPCRG Committee on Building Research Capacity, the American Academy of Family Physician’s Commission on Clinical Policies and Research, and the Academic Family Medicine Organizations Research Subcommittee, with the STFM representative (usually the chair of the Research Committee) often being the only person overlapping these various groups.
When the initial discussions arose regarding the possible formation of a new research journal for our discipline, the leadership of STFM stepped forward to take an active role. When these negotiations became more concrete to the point of asking for a large investment of STFM resources to help make the journal become a reality, the STFM Board discussed the critical issues and agreed to take its share of the risk. In particular, Roger Sherwood, the executive director of STFM, has been extremely supportive of this endeavor, recognizing the potential importance of the new journal to our research community. STFM also will continue to support the publication of our long-standing journal Family Medicine, with a particular focus on educational and program-oriented research, but a willingness to publish other types of research as well. We foresee that both journals will complement each other, flourish, and serve as important avenues for publication. Combined, they will be important voices in our continuing efforts to establish and elucidate the research base of our discipline and to improve the health of the public.
STFM is extremely proud to collaborate with the family of family medicine organizations in the production of the Annals. In this first issue, we recognize the many efforts of all who have contributed to its birth and look forward to its growth and success.
For more information on STFM Research activities, visit the STFM Web site at www.stfm.org, or contact Dr. Dickinson at perry.dickinson{at}uchsc.edu.
1 Department of Family Medicine, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, Colo
2 Department of Family Medicine, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Penn
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  D. E. Pathman, A. J. Viera, and W. P. Newton Research Published in 2003 by U.S. Family Medicine Authors J Am Board Fam Med, January 1, 2008; 21(1): 6 - 16. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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