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Leland B. Blanchard, MD

JAMA. 1970;212(7):1206-1207.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Elsewhere in this issue (p 1191) John Walsh, MD, president of the American Board of Family Practice, has outlined how this new specialty came into being. If family physicians are to be called specialists, they need to be distinguished somehow from traditional specialists. With all its other problems, this developing field does not need those of semantics.

As medical knowledge continue to increase and skills to improve, the need for some physicians to limit themselves and develop depth of knowledge and skills in smaller and smaller segments of medicine seems self-evident. As this division of labor and fragmentation of the science of medicine continues, the increasing need for other physicians to develop breadth of knowledge and skills in all fields and aspects of medicine to coordinate this expanding medical care for the benefit of the public seems equally self-evident.

Since consulting is their primary role, the former practitioners may be . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
San Jose, Calif

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