While the health care system has struggled with the COVID-19 pandemic due to multiple factors, one thing has become even clearer to me — supporting and emphasizing family medicine in our system is crucial to fighting all sorts of pathological and societal maladies.

Earlier in my term, I asked you all to share your stories as family physicians with patients, lawmakers, regulators, and the press, to anyone who would listen. I know that many of you are doing that. We have to keep spreading the gospel of an adequately supported family medicine as the key to a high-functioning health care system. Thanks to our efforts, certain media outlets seek out the UAFP and some of our physicians for any stories on healthcare-related issues. Our current president-elect, Dr. Isaac Noyes, myself, and others have had opportunities to support stories by local and national outlets, and the UAFP is increasingly viewed as a health care leader in our state. We have also been active in writing op-eds for our local papers on critical health issues.

Our influence at the legislature also continues to grow thanks to the efforts of our Executive Director, Maryann Martindale, and our Program Director, Barbara Munoz. Many family physicians are invited to testify in front of various legislative committees and are sought out for our expertise on patient health. Our presence is felt on Capitol Hill.

But these are not the most important ways in which our voices are heard. It is every day, with every patient, where family medicine truly shines. When people have been nervous or apprehensive about COVID-19, they turn to their trusted family doc. When help is needed, and many specialists have even less access during the pandemic, we step up and address our patient’s needs. We are the ones who lead with virtual medicine, addressing questions over the phone, and providing expertise to local health departments. Family medicine has more than proven its worth through this crisis.

The legitimate worry now is what will happen after the pandemic is over. What will medicine look like? Will payment mechanisms change to better support the unmatched value and benefit of primary care? Will payers and regulators now realize how much beneficial non-face-to-face patient care we provide? Or will it just return to business as usual? One thing is clear — it’s not going to change unless we change it.

That’s why we all need to continue building and furthering our relationships, and keep sharing our story, with everyone we can. The AAFP has done a tremendous job of connecting with decision-makers in Washington. As they continue to work on the national front, we have to make sure that health care in Utah is what our patients deserve — high quality, accessible, and coordinated with primary care at the helm. Time and again, studies have shown that primary care provides the best value in health care. Those with a primary care physician live longer, have better outcomes, go to the hospital less, and cost the system less, despite this including the sickest among us. Our response to the COVID-19 crisis proves this even more.

We need to raise our voices to those in power that family medicine carried the system during this pandemic, and we will continue to carry the system in the future if we receive the support needed to care for our patients.