University of Wisconsin–Madison
John Frey, MD

John Frey, MD

Professor Emeritus

john.frey@fammed.wisc.edu

John Frey, MD

Education

  • Northwestern University Medical School – MD
  • University of Miami – Family Medicine Residency

Bio

John J. Frey, MD, has served as a residency director, fellowship director, clerkship director, and department chair. He has been a part of STFM since 1973 and served as its president in 1999. Frey has written for and edited journals since 1986 and has served as a consultant for the National Library of Medicine since 1987. He has been honored to visit and speak at a wide variety of venues in family medicine and has learned from those visits about the diversity of people and ideas in our discipline

Frey was born in Kansas City, Missouri, into a German Catholic family whose ancestors migrated down the Mississippi, distributing themselves as farm families in Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri. His immediate family eventually settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Frey is the first college graduate and medical doctor in his family.

Frey was a liberal arts premed, taking enough science to meet minimum medical school requirements. Later in life his interest in writing turned to medical journals as an editor. Lately, he has been writing essays, which he feels suits his skills and interests better.

From 1992 to 1993, Frey and his colleague, Bill Ventres, MD, published a series of oral histories of the founders of the academic discipline of family medicine. The series coincided with the 25th anniversary year of the founding of academic family medicine.

Frey continues to listen in medicine, teaching, and talking with people for the “opportunity to actually witness the words being born,” as poet and physician William Carlos Williams said. Said Frey, “the experience still takes my breath away.”

Clinical Interests

Frey has engaged with underserved communities throughout his career, including Model City clinics, FQHCs, and rural free clinics. He is particularly interested in how family of origin, culture, neighborhood, and community affect health and management.

Teaching Interests

Throughout his career, Frey has engaged in faculty development programs as a leader and participant. He is interested in scholarship and has a long history of editing journals and working with faculty members on biomedical publication. As department chair, he helped build and support different paths for residency education including rural training tracks, urban training, and working with at-risk and marginalized people. He has a longtime interest in the history of family medicine, particularly the oral histories of colleagues and his teachers.

Publications and Presentations

  • Green LA, Miller WL, Frey JJ III, Jason H, Westberg J, Cohen DJ, Gotler RS, deGruy FV. The time is now: a plan to redesign family medicine residency education. Fam Med. 2022;54(1):7-15. doi:10.22454/FamMed.2022
  • Mullen RA, Tong S, Sabo RT, Liaw WR, Marshall J, Nease DE Jr, Krist AH, Frey JJ III. Loneliness in primary care patients: a prevalence study. Ann Fam Med. 2019;17(2):108-115.
  • Frey JJ III. Professional loneliness and the loss of the doctor’s dining room. Ann Fam Med. 2018;16(3):195-196.
  • Frey JJ. A journey to someplace better. Ann Fam Med. 2003;1(3):175-176.
  • Frey JJ III. A piece of my mind. Ward 55. JAMA. 1999;282(20):1897-1898. doi:10.1001/jama.282.20.1897

Awards and Honors

  • 2006 F. Marian Bishop Award – Society of Teachers of Family Medicine
  • 2010 Folkert O. Belzer Award – University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
  • 2017 John G. Walsh Award for Lifetime Achievement to Family Medicine – American Academy of Family Physicians