The Faces of Family Medicine 2011–2015

From where we stand the rain seems random. If we could stand somewhere else, we would see the order in it.

Tony Hillerman

In January 2011, Canadian Family Physician (CFP) launched a radically different type of journal cover.¹ Inspired by the masterful combination of biography and photography in John Berger’s A Fortunate Man² and uninspired by more traditional journal covers, we at CFP wanted to profile a Canadian family physician each month and try to capture some of each personal journey. By randomly selecting subjects from among the 32 000-strong list of members of the College of Family Physicians of Canada, we hoped that in the fullness of time each individual story—each pixel—would create a rich portrait of Canada’s family physician work force. By random selection we wanted to avoid the usual narratives about overachieving family physicians.

When the project began we were not certain how long it might take to create that rich portrait. With this month’s issue we present that final cover.

Along the 5-year journey we received plenty of feedback about the covers and the stories from readers and the cover subjects themselves—most of it positive, but some of it not. Many readers, even during this final year, failed to realize that the subjects were chosen at random, although we reminded them monthly. Of course, although we contacted potential cover subjects randomly, people self-selected to participate. Not surprising, in the earliest months of the project, most of those we contacted were uncertain about what we were trying to do and declined to participate, but by the end almost no one declined.

Among the critical feedback we received from readers was that many of the cover subjects were not “real” family doctors because so many were in focused areas of practice. But a closer reading of the cover subjects’ stories reveals the opposite—that most family physicians portrayed are engaged in a broad scope of practice meeting the needs not just of individual patients but of their communities as well.

What about the featured physicians themselves? Almost all of them treasured the opportunity to tell their personal stories of becoming and being family physicians—to have that brief moment when their peers see and hear about them and their work. In addition to their rewarding work as family physicians, some chose to share their pride in their family lives, some their long journey from their origins, others their hobbies and interests, still others their engagement with their communities.

What does this “final” portrait reveal? That is for readers themselves to decide. For the editorial team at CFP, we saw many things: the richness and the ordinariness of Canada’s family physicians; their pride in their work, their families, and their communities; and their passion for family medicine and for the avocations that enrich their lives from music to sport to volunteer work. We hope you saw some of that too.

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