Principles of family medicine
Instructional Objectives:
At the end of the lecture the student would be able to:
1-Define the main concept of Family Medicine.
2-Point out the important elements in Family Medicine.
3-List the components in Family Medicine.
4-Demonstrate the importance of family Medicine.
5-Describe the health care services provided by the Family Medicine.
Family medicine emphasizes
responsibility for:
Total health care
from initial
assessment to continuous care of
the individual and his family.
Health promotion
wellness
and early disease detection
are important elements in family
medicine
Why is primary care and Family
medicine are important?
longer life spans and fewer deaths due to heart
and lung disease
fewer cases and deaths due to colon and
cervical cancer
better detection of breast cancer
less ER and hospital use
better preventive care
reduced health disparities
What are the primary care and Family
medicine specialties?
Family physicians provide
Prevention & management of acute injuries
and illnesses
Health promotion
Hospital care for acute medical illnesses
Chronic disease management
Maternity care
Well-child care and child development
Primary mental health care
Rehabilitation
Supportive and end of life care
A successful family physician
incorporate several components
in patient care
which are:
1:Accessibility
A family physician is often the first medical
contact with the patient and should be
available if the patient has an
urgent or
chronic complaint
(mainly office or clinic setting)
accessibility should be:
financially affordable
geographically accessible
2:Medical diagnosis
• Medical competency is a core value of
family medicine
• as the family doctor is the
1st medical
contact
he must have knowledge about a
broad array of diseases and have the skill
and judgment to determine the scope, site,
and place of medical evaluation.
• A good family physician can care about
90% of
patient health needs
;for the remaining
problems he can consult the appropriate
specialist.
3:Comprehensiveness
• Family practice deals with
all ages, both
sexes, and each organ system
.
• A typical family physician provide broad
range of services including
acute and
chronic disease management
in
clinic,
hospital, or via telephone
.
• Also it involve both biological aspect of
diseases and
social, psychological
perspective.
4:Communication
• The need to
inform, educate, reassure, and
advice patients
is an essential part of family
medicine.
• Effective communication depend on
understanding what the patients
thinks
about their illness.
Ex: many patients visit a family
doctor in order to learn the cause
or to get reassurance that their
problem is not serious.
(headache pain…..no brain
tumor)
5:Coordination of care
• Family physician is the central
source of
information
about the patient care through
maintaining complete records of the patient
problems.
• Also family physician coordinate patient
referral to specialists
and assume
responsibility for guiding the patient
through the complicated health care system.
6:Continuity of care
• The family physician develops
long term
relationships with patients maintains a
longitudinal record of patient problems and
promote a healthy life style.
• This involve
one
physician seeing the
patient for acute episodes of illness and for
periodic visits for health maintenance.
• And this will
increase the trust
between the
patient and his physician so it will improve
the patients adherence to treatment and
advises .
7:Patient advocate
• The physician is responsible for educating
the patient about treatment outcomes and
prognoses and involve the patient
actively
in the
decision
of his health care plan.
• Also family physician is responsible for the
total care of individual during times of
health and illness
.
What’s a typical week in family
medicine?
Key points
• The goals of primary care include medical
diagnosis and treatment,
comprehensiveness, communication,
coordination of care, and continuity of care.
• The family physician is often the first
contact for patients with the health care
system.
• The family physician view of health care
extend beyond the biological model and
incorporates social and psychological
aspects of care.
More about family medicine
• Family medicine department
• Family medicine
clerkship director
• Virtual FM at aafp.org
• AAFP chapter
