Family Medicine, what is it? Family Medicine is defined as a medical specialty which provides continuing and comprehensive health care for each member of the family. Family Physicians possess unique attitudes, skills and knowledge to provide medical care for any patient regardless of sex, age, or type of problem. But what does that really mean? The box office has produced such movies as "Doc Hollywood" and "Patch Adams", both of which shed some light into the humorous side, as well as the communication skills involved, with being family physicians. They attempt to show what it takes to treat the whole patient. They have also shown that if you can’t communicate well with your patient, you are at a disadvantage. Patch Adams has continued to break through this indifference and helps focus on the importance of a skillful bedside manner. As family physicians, we are in the unique situation where we are able to experience our patient’s lives on a more personal level, both with good times, and in bad. I had a patient ask me once, how did I decide to become a family physician. While she was making me think about that, she showed me a joke that she had printed off of the Internet entitled, "I don’t want to be a doctor because:

If I were a pathologist, I’d be in a dead end job.
If I were a biologist, I’d be in jeans all the time.
Anesthesiology would put me to sleep.
Cell specialists are too cultured for my taste.
I can’t stand podiatry.
I can’t see myself as an ophthalmologist.
I’m too old to be a gerontologist.
I would have to be crazy to become a psychiatrist.
But a friend told me that ontology would grow on me.
I’m told pediatrics is child’s play!
I haven’t got the heart to be a cardiologist.
And they’d see right thru me if I went into radiology.
And I really couldn’t face it if I were a dermatologist.
I’ve haven’t got the spine to be a chiropractor.
I’m not cut out to be a surgeon.
If I weren’t such a baby, I’d become an obstetrician.
It’s been drilled into me that I should be a dentist.
I’d rather be a plumber than a urologist.
If I were a proctologist I’d have to look at you know what all day.

My response to her was, as a family physician, I get to be involved in all aspects of medicine. Everything listed on that joke, family physicians do on a regular basis. We know what goes on with our patients. We often serve as the translators of the specialists to our patients. As family physicians we put the "Care" back into "Health Care." In this day and age of managed care, we still "manage to care."

The year 2001 will be the 50^th Anniversary of the South Dakota Academy of Family Physicians. We truly are the "Specialty of the People." Where we have been practicing for 50 years or 1, it’s a tradition that needs to be carried on, and one in which to be proud of. We as family physicians do what Patch Adams represents with his Gesundheit Institute Motto, "Bringing Fun, Friendship, and the Joy of Science back into Health Care."