Florida Academy of Family Physicians

The Florida Academy of Family Physicians (FAFP) is Florida's only professional association solely representing the family physician. This organization is composed of more than 4,000 family medicine physicians, residents and medical students from across the state. The mission of FAFP is to promote excellence in health care for Florida citizens, to advance and represent the specialty of family practice and to serve the unique needs of all its members. The American Academy of Family Physicians, FAFP's parent organization, holds a membership of more than 94,000 members across the nation. The Florida Academy of Family Physicians is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.

Background

The specialty of family medicine was created in 1969 to fulfill the generalist function in medicine, which suffered from the growth of subspecialization after World War II. Today, there are nearly 70,000 practicing family physicians in the United States, and nearly one in four of all office visits are made to general and family physicians annually.

Purpose

The Florida Academy of Family Physician's core purpose is to promote excellence in health care by advancing the specialty of family medicine. Through its association with the American Academy of Family Physicians, the FAFP strives to achieve these goals:

: "To promote and maintain high quality standards for Florida's family physicians"

: "To provide advocacy, representation, continuing education and leadership opportunities for Florida's family physicians"

: "To enable every person in Florida to recognize that having a family physician is vital to his or her health"

: "To preserve and promote quality, cost-effective health care for all Floridians through responsible advocacy and education"

FAFP Foundation

In 1988, the Florida Academy of Family Physicians established the FAFP Foundation. This nonprofit organization enables the FAFP to reach out to its members by providing opportunities that will enhance and improve the specialty of family medicine. The FAFP Foundation's primary mission is to continually improve the health care of all Floridians by funding education, research and community outreach programs involving medical students, residents and family physicians. The Foundation has conducted valuable research projects, funded programs to educate and attract medical students to family medicine, administered continuing medical education programs to increase the knowledge and skills of physicians and increased patient and public awareness about the importance of family practice.

External links

* [http://wwww.fafp.org Florida Academy of Family Physicians] (www.fafp.org)
* [http://www.aafp.org American Academy of Family Physicians] (www.aafp.org)