Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current Issue
    • Online First
    • Multimedia
    • Collections
    • Past Issues
    • Articles by Subject
    • Articles by Type
    • Supplements
    • Plain Language Summaries
    • Call for Papers
  • Info for
    • Authors
    • Reviewers
    • Media
    • Job Seekers
  • About
    • Annals of Family Medicine
    • Editorial Staff & Boards
    • Sponsoring Organizations
    • Copyrights & Permissions
    • Announcements
  • Engage
    • Engage
    • e-Letters (Comments)
    • Subscribe
    • RSS
    • Email Alerts
    • Journal Club
    • Annals Forum (Archive)
  • Contact
    • Feedback
    • Contact Us
  • Careers

User menu

  • My alerts

Search

  • Advanced search
Annals of Family Medicine
  • My alerts
Annals of Family Medicine

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current Issue
    • Online First
    • Multimedia
    • Collections
    • Past Issues
    • Articles by Subject
    • Articles by Type
    • Supplements
    • Plain Language Summaries
    • Call for Papers
  • Info for
    • Authors
    • Reviewers
    • Media
    • Job Seekers
  • About
    • Annals of Family Medicine
    • Editorial Staff & Boards
    • Sponsoring Organizations
    • Copyrights & Permissions
    • Announcements
  • Engage
    • Engage
    • e-Letters (Comments)
    • Subscribe
    • RSS
    • Email Alerts
    • Journal Club
    • Annals Forum (Archive)
  • Contact
    • Feedback
    • Contact Us
  • Careers
  • Follow annalsfm on Twitter
  • Visit annalsfm on Facebook
NewsFamily Medicine UpdatesF

THE COUNCIL OF ACADEMIC FAMILY MEDICINE (CAFM): WHERE ACADEMIC FAMILY MEDICINE SPEAKS AND ACTS AS ONE

Jeffrey Borkan and Ardis Davis
The Annals of Family Medicine January 2012, 10 (1) 83-84; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.1359
Jeffrey Borkan
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ardis Davis
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

Academic family medicine in the United States is primarily represented by 4 organizations, each with their own mission, vision, goals, and membership criteria: the Association of Departments of Family Medicine (ADFM), the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors (AFMRD), the North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG), and the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM). Although each organization’s uniqueness has allowed it to secure notable achievements, there is a long standing impression that working together on strategic initiatives, coordinating overlapping and duplicative efforts, and speaking with one voice would provide new opportunities and facilitate greater impact. It was with this spirit that the 4 academic family medicine organizations officially launched the Council of Academic Family Medicine (CAFM) in January 2008.1

Despite CAFM’s rapid development and successes and its significant potential, it has remained relatively obscure to the rank and file academic family physicians, as well as to the organizations outside of family medicine. Getting the word out on its current initiatives and future potential is an important part of its growth and development.

CAFM was started as a council of leaders—rather than a distinct new organization—with each organization represented by their president elect, president, past president, and executive director. This leadership structure respects the unique governance of each organization while providing ongoing and active opportunities to take action on issues of common priority and interest. CAFM also partners with the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) to address issues important to the discipline and to the stakeholders of academic family medicine. To enable this partnering, the AAFP and ABFM each have an appointed liaison to CAFM who participate in face-to-face meetings and selected projects.

The goals of CAFM are to:

  • Provide a unified voice for academic family medicine; while providing a unified voice, CAFM preserves distinctive voices of current constituencies

  • Provide a structure for working together more effectively

  • Provide a place for outside organizations to come to collaborate

Current CAFM Priority projects are divided into 2 categories, broadly focused and targeted. Projects may be initiated and run by CAFM, spearheaded by joint efforts of a combination of constituent organizations, or led by a single group.

Broadly Focused Current CAFM Priority Projects

Advocacy for Family Medicine

In the current fast-paced legislative environment, academic family medicine is ever more frequently called upon for its opinion, and as the leaders of the organization have witnessed, speaking with one voice is hugely important. CAFM, working alone and also in concert with the American Academy of Family Physicians through AFMAC (Academic Family Medicine Advocacy Committee) has been active in coordinating the advocacy efforts of the family of family medicine on a myriad of letters, relationship building, and strategic decisions. A recent example of our collective voice being heard was in the revised rules on Accountable Care Organizations put out by the CMS. Other outreach efforts have included the American Association of Medical Colleges, the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative, various national committees and organizations, as well as Congress, the Administration, and numerous agencies.

Research Advocacy for Primary Care

Research advocacy is a new area for CAFM and it has endorsed four strategies that support increased funding for primary care research.

Patient-centered Medical Home

  • Defining what academic family medicine needs to do to prepare our learners for the PCMH environment

  • Defining and advocating for the role of mental health in the medical home

  • Engagement with the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative

Targeted CAFM Priority Projects

CAFM Resident Competency Measurement Task Force Overview and Update (STFM, lead organization)

Task Force Charge: Identifying, developing, disseminating, and providing training to residency programs on improved ways of measuring competency in residents in order to satisfy expected new RC-FM requirements.

Family Medicine Residency Innovations Task Force (AFMRD, lead organization)

Task Force Charge: Develop a set of recommendations to the family of family medicine regarding ways it can innovate graduate medical education

CAFM Educational Research Alliance (CERA) (STFM, lead organization)

The vision of the CAFM Educational Research Alliance is for family medicine faculty to engage in medical education research while creating collaborations that will enhance the quality of research and increase the number of faculty engaging in high quality medical education research.

CAFM is evolving, though its final form is far from determined. Some elements, such as advocacy, have developed significantly since its inception in 2008, while others, like its infrastructure, remains skeletal. What appears clear, however, is that it provides a unique forum for communication, coordination, and collaboration—moving academic family medicine and the family of family medicine ever closer to achieving its goals: training the next generation, producing new knowledge, and improving the health and well-being of the population.

  • © 2012 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.

Reference

  1. ↵
    1. Newton W,
    2. Dickinson P,
    3. Dietrich A,
    4. Magill M,
    5. Robinson M,
    6. Rogers J
    . Organizing our academic organizations for the Future of Family Medicine. Ann Fam Med. 2008;6(3):275–277. http://www.annfammed.org/cgi/content/full/6/3/275.
    OpenUrlFREE Full Text
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

The Annals of Family Medicine: 10 (1)
The Annals of Family Medicine: 10 (1)
Vol. 10, Issue 1
January/February 2012
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author
  • In Brief
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Annals of Family Medicine.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
THE COUNCIL OF ACADEMIC FAMILY MEDICINE (CAFM): WHERE ACADEMIC FAMILY MEDICINE SPEAKS AND ACTS AS ONE
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Annals of Family Medicine
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Annals of Family Medicine web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
2 + 4 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.
Citation Tools
THE COUNCIL OF ACADEMIC FAMILY MEDICINE (CAFM): WHERE ACADEMIC FAMILY MEDICINE SPEAKS AND ACTS AS ONE
Jeffrey Borkan, Ardis Davis
The Annals of Family Medicine Jan 2012, 10 (1) 83-84; DOI: 10.1370/afm.1359

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Get Permissions
Share
THE COUNCIL OF ACADEMIC FAMILY MEDICINE (CAFM): WHERE ACADEMIC FAMILY MEDICINE SPEAKS AND ACTS AS ONE
Jeffrey Borkan, Ardis Davis
The Annals of Family Medicine Jan 2012, 10 (1) 83-84; DOI: 10.1370/afm.1359
Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Broadly Focused Current CAFM Priority Projects
    • Targeted CAFM Priority Projects
    • Reference
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Core Outcomes of Residency Training 2022 (Provisional)
  • AAFP Issues New Clinical Practice Guideline on Hypertension
  • Family Medicine Advances Transition to Competency-Based Education
Show more Family Medicine Updates

Similar Articles

Content

  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Past Issues in Brief
  • Multimedia
  • Articles by Type
  • Articles by Subject
  • Multimedia
  • Supplements
  • Online First
  • Calls for Papers

Info for

  • Authors
  • Reviewers
  • Media
  • Job Seekers

Engage

  • E-mail Alerts
  • e-Letters (Comments)
  • RSS
  • Journal Club
  • Submit a Manuscript
  • Subscribe
  • Family Medicine Careers

About

  • About Us
  • Editorial Board & Staff
  • Sponsoring Organizations
  • Copyrights & Permissions
  • Contact Us
  • eLetter/Comments Policy

© 2023 Annals of Family Medicine