Family Medicine physicians are noticing a quiet shift: large primary care groups increasingly recruit Internists and Pediatricians instead of Family Docs. Why? On paper, it looks efficient—split adults and kids into neat silos. But in practice, the loss of Family Medicine’s versatility can be costly.
Family physicians bring the long view—continuity that bridges adolescence to adulthood, pregnancy to geriatrics, diabetes management to family dynamics. In systems driven by metrics and panel sizes, that breadth gets undervalued—but patients (and communities) feel the loss when the “whole person, whole family” perspective disappears.
Many Family Docs are responding by leaning *into* their unique strengths—rural leadership, lifestyle medicine, urgent care, and integrative roles that don’t fit neatly into subspecialty boxes. Others are advocating within systems, making the case that Family Medicine’s adaptability is exactly what population health needs.
What’s your take—have you seen this shift in your own organization?