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As the US health care delivery system undergoes rapid transformation, there is an urgent need to define a comprehensive, evidence-based role for the family physician. A Role Definition Group made up of members of seven family medicine organizations developed a statement defining the family physician's role in meeting the needs of individuals, the health care system, and the country. The Role Definition Group surveyed more than 50 years of foundational manuscripts including published works from the Future of Family Medicine project and Keystone III conference, external reviews, and a recent Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education Family Medicine Milestones definition. They developed candidate definitions and a "foil" definition of what family medicine could become without change. The following definition was selected: "Family physicians are personal doctors for people of all ages and health conditions. They are a reliable first contact for health concerns and directly address most health care needs. Through enduring partnerships, family physicians help patients prevent, understand, and manage illness, navigate the health system and set health goals. Family physicians and their staff adapt their care to the unique needs of their patients and communities. They use data to monitor and manage their patient population, and use best science to prioritize services most likely to benefit health. They are ideal leaders of health care systems and partners for public health." This definition will guide the second Future of Family Medicine project and provide direction as family physicians, academicians, clinical networks, and policy-makers negotiate roles in the evolving health system. INTRODUCTIONA t the turn of the century, family medicine leaders organized the Keystone III Conference to "examine the soul of the discipline of family medicine, and to take stock of the present and grapple with the future of family practice." 1 This conference inspired the major family medicine organizations to organize the Future of Family Medicine Project (FFM) charged to " [d]evelop a strategy to transform and renew the specialty of family practice to meet the needs of people and society in a changing environment." Many successes were born out of FFM, but the decade that followed saw erosion of primary care training, a decline in student and resident interest, and a widening of the physician income gap. Currently, while family medicine and primary care are fighting pressures from insurers and purchasers, they are enjoying a renaissance thanks to considerable forces for health reform, including the Affordable Care Act. The major family medicine organizations have launched the FFM 2.0 Project to offer leadership in how family medicine responds to these opportunities.Despite at least 1 attempt to characterize the family physician's role a decade ago, 3 family medicine's lack of a role definition hampered its ability to prioritize and strategize its advocacy:The role of family practice in US culture is now less clear than...

We performed a population survey of telemark skiers over two ski seasons to determine specific risk factors for injury. The survey inquired about the skier's sex, experience, equipment used, injuries, and number of days skied in each season. The respondents completed the surveys whether or not they were injured while skiing. We received 677 responses from telemark skiing clubs, with 19,962 skier-days of data. The number of self-reported injuries was 178, for an overall self-reported injury rate of 8.9 per 1000 skier-days. Knee injuries (N = 48) were the most common injury (27%), followed by thumb (N = 32, 18%) and shoulder (N = 21, 12%) injuries. Specific risk factors for injury were identified with multivariate regression and survival analysis. The skill level of the skier had a significant injury-sparing effect, as did the use of plastic telemark boots. The protective effect of the plastic boots was likely due to the increased stability they provided compared with traditional leather boots. There were fewer knee injuries with the recently available releasable bindings for telemark skis. Sex and age had no significant impact on injury rates in this study population. As all reported deaths associated with telemark sking were due to environmental hazards, skiers must continue to pay close attention to these hazards in the backcountry.