The Article in Brief

To Care is to Coprovide

Stephen A. Buetow

This essay argues that true health caring occurs when both patients and clinicians empower one another and provide their unique expertise. Although clinicians contribute clinical expertise, patients may be experts on their own bodies, life situations, values, beliefs, and preferences. If true care is to take place, both parties must be free to coprovide care, with mutual responsiveness and responsibility. The author calls for redefining family medicine/primary care as “first contact, continuous, comprehensive and coordinated care offered to, and by, patients, their informal caregivers and clinical providers.”