Family physicians are concerned with more than the treatment of disease. The health and well-being of individuals and families is at the heart of family practice. Promoting health and preventing disease involves not only obvious measures such as immunizations and screening but also encouraging patients to make changes in lifestyle and behavior. Primary care practices also are in a position to intervene with patients whose lifestyle and behavior may be negatively impacting their health. The practice of Family Medicine does not involve just dealing with disease processes.
Family physicians are committed to promoting health and preventing disease in their patients.
This week's activities give you an opportunity to examine and participate in educating patients about health risks and healthy behaviors and supporting their behavior changes to enhance health and decrease risk. When students express an interest in Family Medicine or other primary care specialties, many times their motivation is that prevention is a natural part of practicing whole person medicine. Not that this is easy. While even though the strong motivation for providing these services comes from the physician, success at providing high quality preventive services also depends on estabishing office systems of reminders and recalls to accomplish these goals. In addition we all see conflicting recommendations about some screening and preventive services.