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Founding President Lynn Carmichael, MD, died on June 19 at age 80

Known as the ‘’father of family medicine," Lynn Carmichael, MD, established the first family medicine residency program at the University of Miami in 1965 and chaired the department there until 1997. In 1967, he helped establish the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine and became its first president.  He also served as founding editor of Family Medicine, the scholarly journal of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine.

Dr Carmichael trained many of the current leaders of family medicine residency and academic programs and his model for training physicians to deliver medical care in community settings has become a standard in the United States and other countries. He was a pioneer in establishing community health centers throughout South Florida and he and his residents provided medical care in poor urban neighborhoods, migrant labor camps, in jails, at a tiny clinic in the Bahamas and elsewhere.

“He provided strength and courage to the family medicine movement that provided the foundation for us to build our great specialty. He created STFM and gave us the ideals to build upon. His contributions will never be forgotten by those of us who endured the early years of our specialty,” said Edward Shahady, MD, an STFM Past President.

Dr Carmichael was the author of numerous articles and recipient of many national and international awards. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1997.  His writings and interviews reveal a passion for patient care and for teaching others to deliver this care. As Dr Carmichael once wrote, “I had, like most people in medicine, been raised with the idea that diseases existed and that our job was to treat diseases. But, we don’t treat diseases; we take care of people. I came to know each of my patients as a person. I became close to them. The meaning of ‘family’ in family medicine, to me, is not that the family is the unit of care as much as it is the process of care. It characterizes the type of relationship that you have with a person, a family-type relationship. The real healers are the patients. The goal of the physician should be to do whatever is necessary to enhance individuals’ abilities to heal themselves. There is a tremendous amount of gratification and satisfaction that can come from this kind of medical practice. That to me is more important than the salary, the benefits, and the prestige of being a doctor, and it is much more sustaining.”

Read the special tribute on Dr Carmichael in the September issue of Family Medicine

View Remembrances of Dr Carmichael