ADFM IS TURNING 40!

The Association of Departments of Family Medicine (ADFM) is turning 40 next year! Founded in April 1978 with Paul Young, MD, as the first ADFM President, ADFM’s founding vision was to organize departments of family medicine to lead transformation of medical education, research, and health care to improve the health of the nation. We are planning a big birthday celebration in conjunction with our 2018 Winter meeting from February 21–24, 2018, in Washington, DC, where we were incorporated, to commemorate our “birthplace.” Previous and current members, including chairs and administrators and other senior department leaders, will gather to learn, lead, and celebrate.

The 2018 Winter meeting theme, “Back to the Future: Mindful of Where We Have Been, Resilient in Where we are Going” is noteworthy given the evolutionary phases of ADFM. What originally began as an organization providing “chair support” and commiseration for “Generation One” leaders in academic family medicine departments evolved, as part of strategic planning in 1999, to an organization characterized by “chair education.”¹ Beginning in 2009, ADFM entered its current developmental phase focused on “leadership” following the Board’s articulation of a logo and tagline: “Vision, Voice, Leadership.” This vision included giving voice to a key member of our department leadership teams, our administrators. Department administrators joined ADFM in 2010, increasing our membership by over 50%. In 2012, with a refined mission, vision and goals, ADFM launched its first 3-year strategic plan,² and then our second in 2015.

Our focus on leadership stems from an awareness of the critical need for family medicine leaders now and continuing into the foreseeable future. There are over 150 departments of family medicine at medical schools across the country and as many as 15% to 20% of chair positions are open at any given point. Many schools and health systems are expanding and new schools are opening, with an even greater need for chairs and family medicine leaders. Who will step forward and what are we “leading into”? Over the past 40 years we have seen the emergence of the World Wide Web, sequencing the human genome, electronic health records, and an alphabet soup of organizations (eg, HIPAA, ACOs, and the ACA). There is a critical need for family medicine’s current and future leaders to guide the use of new tools and new “ways of doing things” in the context of the valued relationship-based care that is at the core of our discipline.

At our 40th birthday celebration, we will acknowledge our roots and continue to learn from the wealth of experience provided by many past chairs and administrators (“heritage members”) who will attend this unique, integrated program. We also plan to challenge the future with sessions around introducing clinical innovations, the interface of technology and primary care, and “culture by design.” Imagine what will happen over the next 10 years—what technology will appear and how can we lever that technology to best meet societal needs? More importantly, how can we lead against such threats to our nation’s health as xenophobia and environmental degradation?

In addition to our programming, we promise a wonderful annual dinner of fun, reminiscing, music from over the decades, and yes, singing. All past chairs and administrators are invited and we hope that many can make this “must attend” event!

We will be collecting ADFM memorabilia and are establishing a new Heritage Speaker Fund. If you have any photos, books, or other memorabilia to share or if you have questions about contributions to the “heritage speaker” fund, please contact Priscilla Noland, ADFM’s Administrative Director at: pnoland{at}adfm.org.

• © 2017 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.