Down Goes the Journal of Family Practice! Down Goes the Journal of Family Practice!
After 50 years, the Journal of Family Practice just stopped. No reason was given in the editorial. Anthony Viera, MD, the editor, went on about the history of family medicine, its challenges, its hopes, and then he basically says the JAFP is done.
FIFTY YEARS! (I hope someone got the Howard Cosell reference for the image I made above).
I am not gloating over their failure. Hell, my Placebo Journal only lasted ten years. BTW, you can buy an old issue for only $50 a piece on eBay! What does that say about what we did with the “Mad Magazine for Medicine?”
I actually thought the JAFP was pretty good. I liked their PURLs and Photo Rounds. I think it was as good or better than the AAFP one. But what does their closure say about Family Medicine in general? That’s the bigger question. Do you think the reason is that print material is dead or that the interest in Family Medicine is dead? I think the answer is both.
By the way, if you think there should be a journal for Direct Primary Care, the only hope left for family medicine, then I agree with you. We are pretty much doing that for free at DPCnews.com. Check it out.
The dollar speaks. Marketing of medication is done entirely differently. The readership used to be interested in practicing at the top of their profession; now that concept is assessed by the machine which pays your salary unpredictably. You are not wanted, but represent an unavoidable cash loss to the company. Like illegal farm workers, you are not wanted here for primary care, but needed for distasteful things. A significant percentage of Americans see primary care as an unwanted obstacle to obtaining drugs. Is there a need for a journal to repeat these facts to a woeful audience?
Well, I didn’t know, Doug. I haven’t received a “free” journal since retiring 10 years ago. Now I know how to make some extra dough—selling off my collection of PJ! Not!
LOL