He got to suture cuts, perform skin biopsies and remove warts. He watched as Tilyou performed diagnostic procedures to detect colon and cervical conditions. He woke up at dawn for hospital rounds and collapsed into bed after a full day in the clinic. In short, Levine experienced life as a family physician. It was what I came to medical school to do.
Family medicine is actually a fairly new term used to describe an old discipline.
Before there were cardiologists and gastroenterologists, general practitioners delivered babies, treated colds, set broken arms and served as the family's expert on health and medical matters. Typified by television's kindly Marcus Welby, the general practitioner gradually has given way to medical specialists over the past few decades. The organization defines family practice as the medical specialty that provides continuing health care for the individual and family, integrating the biological, clinical and behavioral sciences. Its scope encompasses all ages, both genders, each organ system and every disease. The American Medical Association recognized family medicine as an official specialty in 1969.