296 APRIL 2017 • VOL. 49, NO. 4 FAMILY MEDICINE SPECIAL ARTICLES B ehavioral Science has made innovative and integral con- tributions to the evolution of family medicine over the past 50 years. This paper divides this jour- ney into four developmental eras: Early Years, Middle Years, Recent Years, and the Future. Over this time, the family physician’s role in treating behavioral health concerns has changed from primary responsi- bility to new models of collaboration and team care. Likewise, behavioral scientists in family medicine have enhanced their scope of attention from the foundational focus on fam- ily dynamics and behavioral health care, to physician well-being, contex- tual care, and team-based communi- cation. The educational and clinical functions of behavioral science fac- ulty have expanded, with signifcant contributions to research and schol- arly work that have defned academ- ic family medicine, and development of leadership roles within clinical teams, academic departments and centers, and larger health systems. The new specialty of family medi- cine was founded upon a broad bio- psychosocial agenda. “The sine qua non of family practice is the knowl- edge and skill which allow the fam- ily physician to confront relatively large numbers of unselected patients with unselected conditions and to carry on therapeutic relationships with patients over time.” 1 Founders of the academic disci- pline of family practice (now family medicine) carefully considered how to practice and teach this unique and needed specialty. What were the skills needed for patient communi- cation, maintaining long-term rela- tionships, and managing patients within the context of families and communities? Many physicians, be- havioral scientists, educators and re- searchers have tried to answer these questions. 2 Their body of work is the 50-year academic history of behav- ioral science in family medicine. Methods Building on several prior reviews and original writings, contributions were interpreted by authors repre- senting a spectrum of perspectives within academic family medicine. It is beyond the scope of this brief overview to include all seminal con- tributions to the evolution of behav- ioral science in family medicine. We chose to highlight frequently used key references that illustrate overall trends. Likewise, there are certain important domains such as com- munity-oriented primary care and interprofessional training where be- havioral scientists have made sub- stantial contributions; however, a full exploration of these topics is beyond the scope of this article. In addition to the general liter- ature review, a thematic analysis identifed the relative frequency of behavioral science terms and con- cepts published throughout this his- tory. The PubMed literary search engine identifed articles published from 1966–2016 using key words in titles and abstracts. The 50-year pe- riod was divided into three roughly equal time frames with four extra years for the start of the specialty when few articles were published and residencies were just begin- ning. The authors reviewed 40 be- havioral science terms, and agreed upon 20 commonly used terms found with even modest frequency in pub- lished articles and reports linked to family medicine. Via iterative liter- ature searches spanning our three time periods up to 2016, the behav- ioral science terms were linked to family medicine, family practice, and primary care to assess the relative frequency of terminology over time. Repeated searches combined related terms (ie, substance use and addic- tion) and dropped very infrequently used terms. These 20 most common- ly found terms are shown in a fre- quency chart (Figure 1) across three time periods. From the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Minnesota (Drs Baird and Danner); Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, (Dr Hepworth); Department of Family Medicine, University of North Carolina, (Dr Myerholtz); St Mary’s Family Medicine Residency (Dr Reitz). Fifty Years of Contributions of Behavioral Science in Family Medicine Macaran A. Baird, MD, MS; Jeri Hepworth, PhD; Linda Myerholtz, PhD; Randall Reitz, PhD; Christine Danner, PhD (Fam Med 2017;49(4):296-303.)