The Development of Family Medicine

Abstract

The terms "family practice" and "family medicine" refer to different levels of activity and should be kept conceptually distinct. Using family practice and family medicine interchangeably blurs important differences between the two and encourages confusion between the issues of family medicine and those of primary care. This confusion, in turn, is contributing to a set of trends that threatens the continued development of family medicine as it is understood here. By developing family medicine as a discipline in its own right, the way is cleared for viewing the family as a vital system of medical concern and for putting the family into the center of medical-care delivery. The result would be a closer working relationship between family medicine and family practice than now exists.