Beyond the Clinic Family Medicine on a Mission Part 1: How Air Force Physicians Achieve Humanitarian Goals Read Family Medicine on a Mission Part 1: How Air Force Physicians Achieve Humanitarian Goals
Phoenix Newsletter - March 2025 President’s Message: ABFM’s Unwavering Commitment to Diplomates and the Specialty Read President’s Message: ABFM’s Unwavering Commitment to Diplomates and the Specialty
Home Research Research Library A Formal Model of Family Medicine A Formal Model of Family Medicine 1996 Author(s) Sumner, W, Truszczynski, M, and Marek, V W Topic(s) Family Medicine Certification Volume Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine Source Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine Background: The American Board of Family Practice is developing a computer-based recertification process. An optimal implementation requires a formal model of family medicine, which will become the basis for a knowledge base. Design: The proposed model of family medicine contains six entities: Population, Record, Agents of Change, Health States, Findings, and Courses of Action. The model illustrates 15 important relations between entities. For instance: Health States Lead to Health States, and Findings Associate with Health States. These two relations describe natural history, manifestations of disease, and the effects of medical interventions and risk factors. Because time is such an important aspect of primary care, nearly all numeric data are represented as graphs of possible values over time, called Patterns, which include details about periodicity. Patterns and other aspects of the model provide a means of describing covariance between observations, such as the influence of height on weight. Results: The model reflects many family practice activities and suggests some formal descriptions of family practice. For instance, diagnostic activities focus largely on classifying early or short segments of Patterns in Findings. Most medical interventions attempt to alter either the probability distributions in a Lead-to relation or the impact of a Finding. Conclusion: The proposed model of family medicine could find uses in many applications, including computer-based tests, medical records, reference systems, and decision support tools. Read More ABFM Research Read all 2014 Health is Primary: Family Medicine for America’s Health Go to Health is Primary: Family Medicine for America’s Health 2019 Medical Professionalism: A contract with Society Go to Medical Professionalism: A contract with Society 2015 ABFM to Simplify Maintenance of Certification (MOC) for Family Physicians and Make It More Meaningful: A Family Medicine Registry Go to ABFM to Simplify Maintenance of Certification (MOC) for Family Physicians and Make It More Meaningful: A Family Medicine Registry 1980 Family practice Go to Family practice
Author(s) Sumner, W, Truszczynski, M, and Marek, V W Topic(s) Family Medicine Certification Volume Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine Source Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine
ABFM Research Read all 2014 Health is Primary: Family Medicine for America’s Health Go to Health is Primary: Family Medicine for America’s Health 2019 Medical Professionalism: A contract with Society Go to Medical Professionalism: A contract with Society 2015 ABFM to Simplify Maintenance of Certification (MOC) for Family Physicians and Make It More Meaningful: A Family Medicine Registry Go to ABFM to Simplify Maintenance of Certification (MOC) for Family Physicians and Make It More Meaningful: A Family Medicine Registry 1980 Family practice Go to Family practice
2014 Health is Primary: Family Medicine for America’s Health Go to Health is Primary: Family Medicine for America’s Health
2019 Medical Professionalism: A contract with Society Go to Medical Professionalism: A contract with Society
2015 ABFM to Simplify Maintenance of Certification (MOC) for Family Physicians and Make It More Meaningful: A Family Medicine Registry Go to ABFM to Simplify Maintenance of Certification (MOC) for Family Physicians and Make It More Meaningful: A Family Medicine Registry