How the Philosophies, Styles, and Methods of Family Medicine Affect the Research Agenda

Allen Hutchinson; Lorne A. Becker

doi:10.1370/afm.195

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Table 1.

Characteristics of Family Physicians

Adapted from McWhinney.²

Are committed to the person, rather than to a particular body of knowledge, group of diseases or special technique(s)

Seek to understand the context of the illness

See every patient contact as an opportunity for prevention or health education

View the practice as a population at risk

Should ideally share the same habitat as their patients

See patients in their homes

Attach importance to the subjective aspects of medicine

Are managers of resources

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Table 2.

Suggested New Definition for General Practice

From Olesen et al.³

The general practitioner is a specialist trained to work in the front line of a healthcare system and to take the initial steps to provide care for any problem(s) that patients may have. The general practitioner takes care of individuals in a society, irrespective of the patient’s type of disease or other personal and social characteristics, and organises resources available in the healthcare system to the best advantages of the patients. The general practitioner engages with autonomous individuals across the fields of prevention, diagnosis, cure, care and palliation, using and integrating the sciences of biomedicine, medical psychology and medical sociology.