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 2019 Improving Quality Improvement Go to Improving Quality Improvement 2017 Impact of Residency Training Redesign on Residents’ Clinical Knowledge Go to Impact of Residency Training Redesign on Residents’ Clinical Knowledge 2009 Comparing the Performance of Allopathically and Osteopathically Trained Physicians on the American Board of Family Medicine’s Certification Examination. Go to Comparing the Performance of Allopathically and Osteopathically Trained Physicians on the American Board of Family Medicine’s Certification Examination. 2011 Engagement of family physicians seven years into maintenance of certification Go to Engagement of family physicians seven years into maintenance of certification
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 2019 Improving Quality Improvement Go to Improving Quality Improvement 2017 Impact of Residency Training Redesign on Residents’ Clinical Knowledge Go to Impact of Residency Training Redesign on Residents’ Clinical Knowledge 2009 Comparing the Performance of Allopathically and Osteopathically Trained Physicians on the American Board of Family Medicine’s Certification Examination. Go to Comparing the Performance of Allopathically and Osteopathically Trained Physicians on the American Board of Family Medicine’s Certification Examination. 2011 Engagement of family physicians seven years into maintenance of certification Go to Engagement of family physicians seven years into maintenance of certification
2017 Impact of Residency Training Redesign on Residents’ Clinical Knowledge Go to Impact of Residency Training Redesign on Residents’ Clinical Knowledge
2009 Comparing the Performance of Allopathically and Osteopathically Trained Physicians on the American Board of Family Medicine’s Certification Examination. Go to Comparing the Performance of Allopathically and Osteopathically Trained Physicians on the American Board of Family Medicine’s Certification Examination.
2011 Engagement of family physicians seven years into maintenance of certification Go to Engagement of family physicians seven years into maintenance of certification