Preface

With a focus on longitudinal physician-patient relationships caring for a range of conditions across multiple settings, family medicine is a medical specialty uniquely positioned to impact the core functions of primary care: First Contact, Comprehensiveness, Coordination, and Continuity. As a patient’s primary point of contact in an increasingly complex medical system, family physicians are trained to build patient trust, monitor population health, and provide both preventive and essential medical interventions in multiple clinical settings. The scope of a family physician’s practice knowledge is both broad and deep, and their training incorporates care of children, adults, the elderly, as well as women throughout pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum periods.

The American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) conducts regular surveys of family physicians across multiple points during their training and practice careers, not only during and shortly after residency training completion, but also when they complete phases of their continuous certification cycles. These surveys are unique for many reasons, including their exceptional response rates (See Methods Appendix). Furthermore, their analyses are used to inform not only ABFM and Diplomates, but also policymakers, planners, and the public, about the remarkable work of family physicians and their clinical support teams. Survey data have been pivotal in advancing funding for family physicians and primary care, a better understanding of the discipline and its needs, and improving patient and population health.

Findings from these surveys provide real‑world information about what family physicians are doing in practice, how their work is evolving over time, and the unique populations they serve. The findings also tell us how they are adapting to changes in the external environment, such as payment reform, team-based care, digital health adoption, consolidation of delivery systems, and even the post-pandemic era. A range of stories have emerged from the ABFM research team’s use of this data over the past decade.

Using the most up to date data available, we present the second edition of the Family Medicine Factbook, a curated series of basic analyses intended to provide a broad perspective on family medicine and family physicians themselves. We hope the updated Factbook will continue to inform patients, physicians, payors, policymakers, and advocates about this keystone specialty of U.S. primary care, offering a better understanding of family physicians’ geographic distribution, the populations served and services provided, their team-based care leadership, and the challenges faced in the course of their work.

We encourage readers to use the Factbook as a powerful resource for advocacy, education, and strategic planning. The Factbook equips stakeholders with data to support the expansion of family medicine as a valued medical specialty in academic institutions, inform policy decisions, and strengthen community health initiatives. For example faculty and students used the first edition of the Factbook at one institution to highlight gaps in primary care training and increase the availability of family medicine education at the university - an effort that ultimately succeeded. The school has committed to developing a family medicine residency program upon the completion of its new hospital. Whether you're a medical educator, health system leader, or policy advocate, the Factbook provides the evidence needed to drive meaningful change in support of family medicine.

We welcome your feedback, as we hope to continue this series of data-driven insights into the contributions of the family medicine workforce.