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INVITATION TO BE PART OF STFM’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Mary Theobald, Stacy Brungardt, Maureen Grissom, Joseph Scherger, Roger A Sherwood and William Ventres
The Annals of Family Medicine January 2017, 15 (1) 89-90; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.2020

It’s now been 50 years since Lynn Carmichael sent a letter to Gayle Stephens asking if he’d be interested in helping to form an “organization of physicians engaged in teaching family medicine in the medical schools in order to promulgate family medicine as a medical discipline.” This communication led to Lynn Carmichael convening 26 early leaders in family medicine at the Hilton Hotel in New York City.

Anyone who has turned 50 knows that this milestone year provides us an opportunity to reflect on our past, embrace our current place in the world, and define our path to stay healthy, fit, energetic, and productive well into the future.

An STFM task force and STFM staff have spent the past year planning for this anniversary, guided by these general principles:

  • This will be a yearlong celebration

  • This yearlong celebration will be relevant to both senior faculty who have been significantly invested in STFM as well as new faculty who are just getting to know STFM

  • This will be fun!

We invite you to be part of the celebration. Here are ways you can do that:

  • Attend an STFM conference. The STFM Annual Spring Conference, the Conference on Medical Student Education, and the Conference on Practice Improvement will all have 50th anniversary themes woven into programming and other on-site activities. Attend and be part of the discussions, the exhibits, and the parties!

  • Share an STFM story. Look for our video booths at conferences, or use your cell phone to record a favorite STFM memory. We’ll add it to our video wall. Or type your story into our online memory book.

  • Read the Family Medicine dedicated issue (coming later this year), which will comprise a series of scholarly articles about ways STFM has shaped the discipline.

  • Write a blog post! Share your thoughts on the past, present, and/or future of family medicine education.

  • Peruse the interactive timeline on the STFM website to learn about key points in STFM’s history.

  • Contribute to the new STFM Wikipedia page. This collaborative project will benefit from the knowledge and creativity of the masses.

  • Tweet! Use the hashtag #stfm50th to share your anniversary year experiences and your feelings about reaching the big 5-0!

Look for the 50th anniversary logo on printed and online materials. Learn more and join in the fun at http://www.stfm.org/50thAnniversary.

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