American Family Physician’s DEI-Centric Restructuring

Like many medical institutions, American Family Physician (AFP), the journal of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), fully embraced a commitment to radical identity politics in the wake of the “racial reckoning” of the summer of 2020. 

For example, AFP and other family medicine journals issued a statement in October 2020 pledging a commitment to DEI in order to combat the supposed evils of “systemic racism” in healthcare and medicine.

Here’s a brief excerpt:

“We will encourage and mentor authors from groups underrepresented in medicine. We will ensure that content includes an emphasis on cultural humility, diversity and inclusion, implicit bias, and the impact of racism on medicine and health. We will recruit editors and editorial board members from groups underrepresented in medicine.”

But, whereas many have since quietly removed their more explicit pledges to engage in political advocacy, DEI programming, or even overt racial discrimination, AFP’s are not only front and center but have been added to as recently as 2025.

Currently, AFP maintains a statement on the “Diversity” webpage advertising its work “developing goals to increase recruitment of authors, editors, and peer reviewers from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups.”

It’s unclear exactly how AFP aims to achieve this goal, but at first blush, this sure sounds like racial discrimination. 

Also present on AFP’s Diversity webpage are a host of resources that evince the journal’s commitment to DEI and radical identity politics.

One resource, a 2022 editorial titled “Improving Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in AFP,” includes admissions that the journal has actively tried to inject DEI into its content offerings.

“Regarding our editorial processes, we are increasing content on health disparities, racism, and social determinants of health; reevaluating the use of language regarding race, ethnicity, and gender; collecting anonymous demographic information from our authors after publication as we seek to improve representation and diversity; and encouraging mentorship of underrepresented minorities in medicine and medical writing,” the editorial states. “A dedicated editorial team meets regularly to discuss specific and general matters related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).”

Additionally, AFP appointed a “Medical Editor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” in order to “support clinical content and curriculum”; the person appointed to this role, as of last year, appears to still hold that position.

It’s also worth noting that later this year, the AAFP is hosting an event titled the “National Conference of Constituency Leaders” which features representatives from several key “constituencies” of the organization.

These constituencies include “BIPOC physicians and those physicians who are supportive of and aligned with the issues faced by this group” and “Physicians who identify as LGBTQ+ and those physicians who are supportive of and aligned with the issues faced by this group.”

This appears to be yet another example of an approach to medicine more concerned with group identity than clinical excellence.

Do No Harm has frequently cataloged the AAFP’s infatuation with DEI; in 2024, we reported on AAFP’s efforts to recruit subject matter experts for its continuing medical education content, with proposals required to be “DEI-focused.”

And in 2023, the AAFP’s vice president of medical education bemoaned the Supreme Court’s decision that found race-based university admissions unconstitutional, instead calling for alternative means of racial discrimination.

All in all, it seems like AAFP and its journal are still committed to pushing divisive, discriminatory, and radical ideology and practices.

Family physicians, and patients by extension, suffer as a result.