Am Fam Physician. 2025;111(1):5
Author disclosure: No relevant financial relationships.
This is the 75th year of American Family Physician, and we plan to commemorate the journal and the evolution of its coverage of key topics in a special yearlong series. A similar series in 2000 celebrating the journal's 50th anniversary was titled “AFP 50 Years Ago.”1 We were both AFP editors at that time, and our career paths and journal roles have evolved significantly since then.
I (Sumi) began as the medical student representative in 1996 and applied to be the medical editing fellow during the 50th anniversary year. In 2001, I became a contributing editor and then over the years progressed to associate deputy editor and became the editor in chief in February of 2018. Matt's journey with AFP began as a manuscript editor in 1998 and progressed from senior manuscript editor to senior editor and online administrator. In April of 2020, he became the managing editor. Just as our roles, responsibilities, and perspectives have changed over the years, we've also witnessed transformations in the journal's coverage of family medicine topics, ranging from how the content is discussed to how it is presented in print, online, and in videos, social media, and podcasts. It's important to note that throughout the transformations over the decades, the core mission of the journal to help family physicians care for their patients and communities has remained constant.
The first issue was published in April 1950 under the name GP, as the journal of the American Academy of General Practice (AAGP). The goal was to create a “top-quality journal” to be unlike any other medical society journal and to be “the best in the field” for busy physicians. It was almost called Medicine and Surgery, but the name GP was thought to be more distinctive and match its innovative approach of providing practical clinical review articles and captivating illustrations, in contrast to the traditional academic medical journals. In 1961, an off-shoot of GP called American Family Physician was created to reach nonmembers. The two journals were merged as American Family Physician/GP in 1970 and then just American Family Physician in 1971. This coincided with the official change of the AAGP to the American Academy of Family Physicians.2
Before 1988, when Dr. Jay Siwek became the editor in chief, most of the editors and authors were not family physicians, and most articles were written from the specialist point of view. Today, the entire team of medical editors consists of board-certified family physicians who collaborate with an experienced team of professional editors to produce the best evidence-based content written by family physicians for family physicians.
The AFP team of medical and professional editors have collectively crafted a yearlong series combining archived documents and images with current perspectives to show the journal's evolution and celebrate its 75th year. The next article in the series will describe how evidence-based medicine was introduced into the journal. Other topics include changes in the approach to women's health, race-based medicine, opioid addiction, and diabetes. Each article will also include a brief but unique perspective reflecting on what it means to be an AFP editor, author, or reader or a patient. We will end the series with future predictions, reflections from contributors, noteworthy journal statistics, and other surprise features. In addition to the planned articles, we hope to engage readers on our digital platforms where we will share more historical AFP content and highlight individuals advancing the field of family medicine. You can find this at @afpjournal on Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), and YouTube.
What AFP Means to Me
American Family Physician was my first job out of college. Never in a million years did I expect to become a technical editor and love it, but 28 years later…here we are! The job is constantly evolving, and the work is always interesting and challenging. I've learned so much from my fellow professional and physician editors and our authors and readers. AFP has given me an appreciation of the diversity of the primary care physician population, and it's allowed me to help contribute something truly meaningful to the world. It's a tremendous source of both pride and humility.
Monica Preboth, Senior Editor, AFP
