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Healthy Foods Close to Home: The Fresh Truck Model
As obesity rates continue to rise in the United States, researchers have pointed toward numerous causes: ultra-processed foods, lack of physical... -
What Your Patients are Hearing About GLP-1 Medications
Glugacon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist medications have taken social media and celebrity news by storm. Your patients have likely heard... -
The New Landscape of Obesity Medicine: What Does This Mean for Patients?
With the development and expanded use of medications for the treatment of obesity, we are able to broaden the tools we can offer patients to treat...
Archive
Perspectives in Primary Care features writing from practitioners, activists, and community members representing organizations, practices, and institutions across the United States and around the world.
Advocacy
Standing for change: NASEM Forms Standing Committee for Primary Care
As a specialty that manages complex chronic conditions and preventive care, primary care has been shown to reduce cardiovascular, cancer, and respiratory mortality and extend the lives of patients. Yet the field of primary care faces an unmanageable physician workload, lower average salaries than most other medical specialties, and ...
Advocacy
Community-Driven Solutions for Health: Lessons from the Matahari Women Workers’ Center Healing Justice Initiative
“I just know I need to leave the job,” Bruna (whose name has been changed to protect privacy) said through the Zoom screen as she finished telling our group about the increased demands, stagnant wages, and disrespect she was experiencing from her employer. “I was just diagnosed with high blood pressure—I never had this before! If I stay, this job will just keep harming my health,” she concluded. One by one, we went around our circle, providing her with similar experiences and words of encouragement and appreciation for sharing her story. One group member agreed to help her compose a ...
Stories
The Future is Bright—Award Recipients Share Insights
Primary care is the first point of care for many. It has a direct impact on health equity and is uniquely positioned to help alleviate the impact of social determinants of health, manage chronic conditions, and help people live healthier lives. While there are physician shortages in the primary care field, there are still individuals who commit to this noble pursuit. Today, we honor recent recipients of the Robert H. Ebert, MD Student Achievement Award by sharing their insights on what makes primary care great. Congratulations to ...
Advocacy
Advancing Health Equity and Value-Based Care: A Mobile Approach
A major task of the U.S. health system is how to provide high-value care that is equitably accessible for the general populace. Health care is more costly in the U.S. than in any other country. As a result, nearly half of all Americans ...
Advocacy
The Role of Advocacy in Primary Care
Primary care physicians are uniquely positioned to go beyond the immediate needs of their patients. Everything from writing a prescription to examining the larger, more daunting socioeconomic and environmental factors that affect their patients’ health and well-being falls within their scope of work. “When physicians have a trusting relationship with their patients, there are things that are disclosed between the walls of an exam room that many people would not disclose otherwise,” says
Advocacy
Air Pollution Is the New Radiation. It is Time to Act Like It.
In the not-so distant past, you may not have thought twice about your exposure to radiation. While Roentgen discovered the X-ray in 1895, it would not be until the early-mid 1900s that the general public—let alone the scientific community—would accept the malignant potential of an invisible, devastating force, powerful enough to pierce bone, burst cells, and warp DNA. It would take years of tragedy before we finally recognized radiation for what it was—a threat to human health. That begs the question, why aren’t we doing ...
Advocacy
Relating Place, History, and Neighborhood Context to Mental Health: A Baltimore Case Study
Mental health is a growing public health priority. While people from racial/ethnic minority groups generally report a similar prevalence of mental health conditions compared to the rest of the U.S. population, they have
Personal Perspectives
Seeking Medical Care in Fear: Transgender Millennials Open up About Fears, Mistreatment
One of the most beautiful aspects of my practice as a mindfulness teacher and coach is that it takes me into a wide range of communities. The goal is to meet people where they are rather than expect them to find me. I learn as much (or more) from the populations I serve as they may learn from engaging in the programs I offer. Much of my mindfulness teaching involves individuals and groups who are from diverse backgrounds very different from my own. A recent experience was no exception, as I was invited to teach an eight-week