To the Editor::

Robert L. Edsall’s editorial [“The First Step Toward the Future of Family Medicine,” November/ December 2003, page 9] brought to mind a criticism I have always had of our Academy: We did nothing to protect the name of family medicine. Every inadequately trained storefront doctor who has no boards in anything calls himself or herself a “family physician.”

It is no wonder that family medicine is maligned; even our fellow physicians can’t make the distinction. I grimace whenever I am lumped together with these fake family physicians, and I resent the fact that in my hospital and many others, the family medicine departments have been the dumping ground for any physician who is not board certified in anything, thus even further blurring the distinction.