The American Board of Family Medicine Foundation Inaugurates the G. Gayle Stephens Keystone Conference Series.

Dr. Gayle Stephens (August 6, 1928, to February 20, 2014), one of the founders of family medicine in the United States, provided consistent intellectual leadership that profoundly affected the specialty. He connected history, philosophy, religion, psychiatry, the family, the community, and the sciences to the practice of medicine, and he explained how family medicine was a “counterculture” within medicine, manifested in personal relationships and rooted in social change. He particularly advanced the importance of relationships in clinical practice and the role of the personal physician as a trusted and trustworthy agent for patients. His obituary proclaimed: “Through his practice, teaching, writing, editing, and advocacy, Dr. Stephens acted on his belief that, ‘Medicine is a moral vocation that is practiced best when patients have a personal physician who can help them get what they need from the larger system in a manner that does not demean or exploit them, a personal physician who is able and willing to attend to their patients’ life experiences and individual preferences.’” Dr Stephens was a prolific writer, and his extensive body of written work was highlighted in a 2011 Family Medicine article, “G. Gayle Stephens Festschrift,” written by John Geyman, MD, another founding leader in family medicine and a contemporary of Dr. Stephens. Dr. Geyman wrote that Dr. Stephens, “has been . . . by far the most original, thoughtful, and eloquent voice in our field and among the few who best represents the moral conscience of the entire medical profession. His wideranging intellect connects us with history, gives context for where we are now, and envisions alternative futures for our specialty, our profession, and society. Truly a renaissance man among us.” Obviously, his contributions were recognized by many, and were confirmed by his election to the US National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine, now known as the National Academy of Medicine. For many, Dr. Stephens was the “poet laureate” of family medicine. In addition to his institutional leadership, textbooks, scientific articles, essays, visiting professorships, and invited lectures, Gayle initiated an unusual invitational conference, known as “The Keystone Conference,” where a relatively small group of colleagues could discuss ideas and discern important challenges and opportunities meriting the attention of family physicians and medicine as a profession. The third Keystone Conference inspired the Future of Family Medicine project that guided family medicine through the first years of the 21st century. In an effort to support the continuation of Dr. Stephen’s life-long work and service, the American Board of Family Medicine Foundation established “The G. Gayle Stephens Keystone Conference Series” in 2014. The aim of this series is to continue his legacy of occasional, carefully constructed, invitational conferences focusing on relevant, challenging, perhaps neglected topics worthy of substantial consideration by family physicians, other health care professionals, and the public. The inaugural conference in this series, the fourth Keystone Conference, was held June 5 to 7, 2015, near the Stephens’s family home, at the Keystone Resort in Colorado. It followed the basic purpose and strategies used byDr. Stephens in the first 3 Keystone Conferences and focused on the question, “What promises will a personal physician make to her/his patients going forward in the evolving health care system of the United States, particularly in terms of when and where they will be there for their patients?” It was conceived and planned by a multigenerational planning committee comprising family physicians, inConflict of interest: LAG is an editorial board member of the JABFM. JCP is the president and CEO of the ABFM.