Celebrating Family Medicine at the National Academy of Medicine

NEWLY ELECTED INTERNATIONAL MEMBERS

Dr Trisha Greenhalgh, OBE, MA, MD, PhD, MBA, FMedSci, FRCP, FRCGP, FFPH, FFCI, FHEA, is Professor of Primary Care Health Sciences in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford. As you can tell from her multiple titles and degrees, Dr Greenhalgh is a world-class accomplished scholar and international leader in family medicine. She began her career path becoming a diabetologist, with research interest in type 1 diabetes among those of Bangladeshi decent living in London, and in the narratives that these patients created to understand their disease. The resultant qualitative study, entitled, “Health Beliefs and Folk Models of Diabetes in British Bangladeshis: A Qualitative Study” was the first qualitative study to ever be published in the British Medical Journal.¹ This study was followed by other qualitative studies with South Asians living in London, including one on the illness narratives surrounding gestational diabetes entitled, “Socio-Cultural Influences on the Behavior of South Asian Women With Diabetes in Pregnancy: Qualitative Study Using a Multi-Level Theoretical Approach.”² Her research shows that treatment must be delivered in the context in which the patients live to get the best outcomes. She has also served on the editorial board here at Annals of Family Medicine and has written articles and editorials.³ Dr Greenhalgh is an outspoken leader in the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically in the areas of masking policy, long COVID, and telehealth. Her current role is co-director of the Interdisciplinary Research in Health Sciences at Oxford University (https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/research/interdisciplinary-research-in-health-sciences), where she continues to use qualitative methods to further elucidate illness in the eyes of the patient, most recently with COVID-19.⁴ Dr Greenhalgh is active in social media as well, promoting our discipline and the science that should guide our policies (Twitter handle: @trishgreenhalgh). Even though 2023 has just begun, Dr Greenhalgh has 14 publications already published, cited across the world, with an h-index of 129! Dr Greenhalgh is an outstanding runner, triathlete, researcher, and mother. We here at Annals of Family Medicine are honored to have Dr Greenhalgh among us and give her our warmest congratulations for her momentous achievement.

Like Dr Greenhalgh, Dr Robert James Mash, MBChB, DCH, DRCOG, FRCGP, FCFP (SA), PhD, is also from the United Kingdom. He currently lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa, where he serves Stellenbosch University as professor and head of the Department of Family and Emergency Medicine. Dr Mash went to South Africa early in his career, before the end of apartheid, and he worked serving the patients in the Khayelitsha township, a large, poor, segregated area of the western cape of South Africa. As President of the South African Academy of Family Physicians he helps lead the effort to establish family medicine in South Africa and, through the Primafamed network (https://primafamed.sun.ac.za/), in 25 other sub-Saharan African nations. In addition to advocacy for the field, Dr Mash is the editor-in-chief of the African Journal of Primary Health Care and Family Medicine (https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm). This journal has documented the emergence of family medicine on the African continent⁵ and the many benefits of family physicians to African health systems.⁶ He has also written extensively on climate change and its devastating effects of hurricanes, rain bombs, and other disasters on the African continent, and importantly on the attitudes and perceptions of family physicians regarding this crisis.⁷ Dr Mash has been an outspoken advocate for primary care research and is an editor of the World Organization of Family Doctors’ book How to do Primary Care Research. Dr Mash is also an accomplished artist, whose work is available for viewing at https://rm85656.wixsite.com/bobmash. We offer Dr Mash our heartfelt congratulations on his accomplishments.

NEWLY ELECTED US MEMBERS

Dr Miguel Marino, PhD, is well known to us at Annals of Family Medicine because he served on our editorial board for many years. Dr Marino is the co-director (along with Dr John Heintzman) of the Primary Care Latino Equity Research Center (PRIMER) laboratory (https://www.primerlab.org) at Oregon Health and Science University, and currently serves as the statistical editor of JAMA Health Forum. Dr Marino credits his success to excellent mentors in family medicine, including Drs Jennifer DeVoe, John Saultz, and Deborah J. Cohen. Under their mentorship, Dr Marino developed his family medicine identity, and quickly saw how primary care benefits the health of a nation. His research involves large data sets on Latino health outcomes in the United States and identifying areas in which approaches could be designed to improve outcomes. Although Latinas have the highest life expectancy in the United States, there is still much work to be done to translate those outcomes to other populations. In addition, Dr Marino and his team are developing sustainable and generalizable methods of disaggregating data regarding Latinos, which is a very diverse group spanning 3 continents of origin and multiple indigenous, African, European, and Asian influences.⁸ His recent articles on health inequities in cancer⁹ and asthma¹⁰ for Latinos are advancing the science toward the elimination of these inequities. Dr Marino is also among the youngest professionals ever elected to the National Academy of Medicine! We give him our celebratory congratulations for his incredible accomplishments!

Dr Camara Phyllis Jones, MD, MPH, PhD, is a family physician and epidemiologist who feels very honored to be elected to the NAM, uplifting her lifelong dedication to naming, measuring, and addressing the impact of racism on the United States and the world. She is currently a Leverhulme Visiting Professor in the Department of Global Health & Social Medicine at King’s College London, United Kingdom. Dr Jones was also elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences this year. For decades her allegories¹¹ have been shared across the world, bringing antiracism to increasing spaces domestically and internationally. Dr Jones urges colleagues to read Advancing Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEMM Organizations,¹² and select a part to amplify in our individual careers. Dr Jones’s father was a general surgeon who shared an office with a dentist in a community-based practice; her mother was a mathematics teacher and principal in the Detroit Public School system. All 3 of their daughters became doctors, specializing in administration, clinical practice, and research. At the age of 21, Dr Jones was named a Luce scholar. She was sent to the Philippines to plant trees critical to the ecosystem of the region, which was life changing for her, as she learned the importance of social medicine and the need for organizing as a legitimate kind of intervention. She has dedicated her career to finding a cure for the “cancer” of racism. Dr Jones reminds us to name racism, to ask how racism is operating, and to organize, strategize, and act. She urges the next generation of scholars to practice the 4 BC’s: be courageous, be curious, be collective, build community, which she presented recently in her talk, “Achieving Health Equity: Habits of Mind for Social Justice Warriors.”¹³ Dr Jones is working on children’s books next! We give Dr Jones our heartiest congratulations for the widespread impact of her work and inspiration she has been to so many.

Dr Chien-Wen Tseng, MD, MS, MPH, is a professor of family medicine and the Hawaii Medical Service Association Endowed Chair at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine. Dr Tseng trained as an engineer, but her experiences during the early years of the AIDS epidemic, specifically witnessing widespread injustice and discrimination, turned her toward medicine. Her “aha!” moment to choose family medicine came on a long road trip when she encountered 2 overturned minivans with 15 kids and adults. She realized then that she never wanted to leave people behind who needed care. Honored to be in NAM, Dr Tseng also thanks the frontline family physicians whose contributions make them real-life heroes. For 2 decades, Dr Tseng has worked on drug costs and making medications affordable, after hearing countless patients tell about their difficulties paying for life-saving treatment. Her research on Medicare Part D drug benefits has helped protect coverage for 49 million Americans.^14,15 In 2016, Dr Tseng’s senator nominated her for the US Preventative Services Taskforce where she collaborated on 60+ primary preventative care recommendations that affect the health of millions of individuals.¹⁶ She is grateful to mentors (Drs Robert Brook, Carole Mangione, Adams Dudley, Larry Green, and others), colleagues, her 3 teenagers, family, and the many friends (Cathy and Dani), and fellow cyclists/triathletes who fill her life. She urges young family physicians to believe in themselves, in their dreams, and to be kind to themselves. We humbly thank and congratulate Dr Tseng for her service and dedication to creating a modern health system that works for all.