Development and Validation of a Family History Screening Questionnaire in Australian Primary Care

The Article in Brief

The Future Role of the Family Physician in the United States: A Rigorous Exercise in Definition

Robert L. Phillips, Jr , and colleagues

Background Amid strong shifts taking place in health care, clarification of the family physician's role is critical to the discipline's future success and possibly even to its future existence. Representatives from seven family medicine organizations propose a statement defining the role to which family physicians aspire. They also offer a "foil" definition of what family medicine could become absent any change.

What This Study Found The following definition of the family physician's role was selected. "Family physicians are personal doctors for people of all ages and health conditions. They are a reliable first contact for health concerns and directly address most health care needs. Through enduring partnerships, family physicians help patients prevent, understand, and manage illness, navigate the health system and set health goals. Family physicians and their staff adapt their care to the unique needs of their patients and communities. They use data to monitor and manage their patient population, and use the best science to prioritize services most likely to benefit health. They are ideal leaders of health care systems and partners for public health."

Implications

• The authors conclude that embracing a new definition and, perhaps more importantly, rejecting the foil, are important steps as family medicine negotiates with government, payers, health systems, patients and communities and works to build the future of the specialty.