AAFP Foundation recognizes 2024 student and resident essay contest winners

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Leawood, KS—The Center for the History of Family Medicine (CHFM) at the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Foundation recognized Rowan Magnuson a first-year medical student at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts, as the winner of its essay contest for medical students and residents.

Magnuson’s essay titled, Medicalizing Marginalization: The Role of Family Physicians in Treating the Social Determinants of Health, explores how a deeper understanding of the history of social drivers of health is needed to provide appropriate treatments to patients and deliver empathetic community support and care.

“While doctors can absolutely recognize inequality and refer patients to resources, there are no medicines, therapies, or surgeries that can prevent discrimination or change the built environment,” Magnuson writes in their essay.

As the author of the winning essay, Magnuson received a $2,000 prize and their work will be featured at FUTURE, formerly National Conference, this August in Kansas City, MO. The second-place winner, Pratiti Roy, M.D., a third-year resident at the Lancaster General Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, received a $1,000 award for her essay titled, The Compendium of Hardknocks: A Window into the History of Family Medicine, which examines how pocket guides became a powerful tool that doctors have been using for centuries to ensure they give the best care possible.

“I commend Rowan Magnuson and Dr. Pratiti Roy for their ability to succinctly capture what is important in family medicine and their work to preserve our important history,” said AAFP Foundation Board President Jay-Sheree Allen Akambase, M.D., FAAFP. “Both essays remind us of where we’ve been and inspire a bright future for family medicine.”

The essay contest, put on by the CHFM at the AAFP Foundation, encourages medical students and family medicine residents to write scholarly essays that capture the history of family medicine in the U.S. It was recently renamed to recognize Richard D. Feldman, M.D., who is known for his contributions to family medicine and public health.

To read the winning essays, visit the Richard D. Feldman, M.D., Student and Resident Essay Contest webpage. The application period for the 2025 essay contest opens on August 15 and closes on November 1.