Family Doctors Say Goodbye

Lucy M. CandibLucy M. Candib MD, is Professor Emerita of the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. She practiced full spectrum family medicine with obstetrics for 40 years at Family Health Center of Worcester, a neighborhood health center serving low-income families including immigrants and refugees. After retiring from clinical care in 2016, Dr. Candib continued to precept residents and students until the COVID-19 pandemic. Working with medical students, she currently performs medical evaluations for persons seeking asylum in the U.S. Dr. Candib has lectured widely on topics of sexual abuse and violence against women and has drawn attention to the challenges facing women trainees. In her book, Medicine and the Family: A Feminist Perspective, Dr. Candib offered a feminist approach to family medicine theory and practice. Dr. Candib received a Fulbright scholarship in 1995 to teach family medicine in Ecuador. She received the World Five-Star Doctor Award in 2013 from WONCA, the World Organization of Family Doctors. Within WONCA, Dr. Candib has represented the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, served as a member of the Organizational Equity Committee, and currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Working Party on Women and Family Medicine. William L. MillerLives unfold as stories and mine celebrates wonder, surprise, justice, and adventure.William L. Miller is a retired family physician, medical anthropologist and Chair Emeritus at Lehigh Valley Health Network in the Lehigh River watershed of eastern Pennsylvania with more than three decades of collaborative mixed methods explorations of healing relationships, the general practice environments where they develop and how to improve them. Along with his friend, Ben Crabtree, he was awarded the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine 2014 Curtis Hames Research Award. Working with others, Will has co-created innovative research methods and educational programs, founded a new academic community hospital-based department of family medicine with over 200 family physicians and their practices while also serving on national level committees and boards. His current work seeks to re-imagine general practice and primary medical care for the future and mentoring the next generation of family medicine leaders along with being an organizational rascal, occasional coyote, and grandfather.

“This book’s publication is timely. … The book provides much to consider as I contemplate the end of this chapter of my life and make plans for the future. I recommend this book to any considering retirement or even just a change in practice location. The text will help us all to honor those special patient relationships that have made us love being family physicians.” (Holly Salzman, Family Medicine, Vol. 56 (8), 2024)

• Changing Tides: Introductory Reflections.- Cultivating a Goodbye to Harvest a Hello.- Leaving Practice in the Era of Independence.- A Black Woman Department Chair Approaches Retirement.- A Gathering of Crumbs, Stones, and Crows.- A Stuttering Course to Retirement.- For the Curious: A Brief Literature Review.- Facing Retirement: Grieving the Loss of Clinical Relationships.- Retiring, or Just Tiring?.- Shy But Not Retiring.- When God Gives You a Good Kick in Your Rear End.- Leaving My Patients, Losing Myself.- Shifting Grounds and Relationships: Some Parting Thoughts.