Desired research outcomes in family medicine vary according to the developmental stage of the discipline and the context of practice. Several milestones in the evolution of family practice research worldwide have been achieved. Now family medicine researchers face the challenge of discovering how evidence-based primary health care can be delivered in a sustainable way to individuals within communities. To advance family medicine research, we must ensure that trainees have a positive research attitude, develop academic clinician-researchers, lobby for primary care research funding, support practitioners who wish to do research in their own practices, sustain practice-based research networks, and study important questions.