Family Medicine: Daily Fare

What is Family Medicine?  You may ask if you're not familiar with my specialty.  I answer that question in this blog post: Family Medicine

People, people and people is where we start each day.  We are generalists in caring for people with hundreds of different medical diagnoses.  All conditions, all diseases and all circumstances are daily fare in Family Medicine.

Individual life cycles and family life cycles intersect in the Family Physician's office.  The genome meets toilet training and shingles in our offices.  Birth to death, even before and after are daily fare in Family Medicine.

Our patients are going somewhere and we care.  We want you to make it to your daughter's softball game.  We want you to be un-infected when you go to your parents 50th wedding anniversary party. Travel and movement are daily fare in Family Medicine.

Who do you live with, love, work for and care for? We want you to have the career of your dreams. We want you to have the relationships and commitments that you've planned and will be honored to have.  Context is daily fare in Family Medicine.

We want you to know if you have health risks that you've inherited.  We want to help you to prevent preventable diseases and to be prepared in a timely fashion for the inevitable.  Prevention is daily fare in Family Medicine.

We want to be a co-steward with you of scarce valuable resources ( like you and your Family Physician, your assets, your employer's assets and the nation's assets).  Together we manage important aspects of the health care decisions that we share.  We know "the system". Cost-effective shared decision making is daily fare in Family Medicine.

Cancer, heart disease, diabetes, strokes, hypertension, hypothyroidism, constipation, diarrhea,  diaper rashes, immunizations, sjogren's syndrome, scleroderma, celiac disease, fibromyalgia, neck pain, low back pain, dermatitis, hyperthyroidism, tachycardia, seborrhea, rosacea, rheumatoid arthritis, sinusitus, pharyngitis, bronchitis, prostatitis, urinary tract infection, interstitial cystitis, herniated discs of lumbar and cervical spine, allergic rhinitis, asthma, high cholesterol, low cholesterol, hypermobile syndromes, acute situational reaction, family stress,, anxiety, attention deficit disorder, autism, depression, bipolar, hair loss, motor vehicle accidents, insect bites, lice, tic bites, plantar fasciitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, tennis elbow, ganglion cyst of wrist, conjunctivitis, insomnia, irritable colon, gastro-esophageal reflux disease, kidney stones, gall stones, palpitations, facial twitching, knee pain, foot pain, and hundreds of other diagnoses are daily fare in Family Medicine.

All of the above is endangered due to changes in reimbursement and electronic medical record (EMR) usage.  Which is also part of the daily fare of Family Medicine.

Patients and patience are daily fare in Family Medicine.