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A Message from the Editor-in-Chief: End of An Era
A final goodbye It is with a heavy heart that I write this last piece for Perspectives in Primary Care. Current financial realities have necessitated... -
An Underrated Barrier to Healthcare: It's Not Just About Cost
“Thank you for calling our free clinic. How can I help you?” I have spent countless hours listening to the pleas of people in desperate need of... -
A Guide to Geriatric Psychiatry Referral for Health Care Professionals and Caregivers
Our aging global population has the potential to enrich our communities, strengthen intergenerational relationships, and help preserve our cultural...
Archive
As of June 30, 2025, Perspectives in Primary Care is no longer active.
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.
Caring for Women Who are Homeless During COVID-19
We doctors don’t like to feel helpless. It’s a real comeuppance when we are faced with an unknown entity so vast, so consuming of resources, and so perplexing even to the giants of medicine. And devastating. Robbing lives too soon. Stealing goodbyes and last hugs. I’ve been here before. The emergence of HIV/AIDS happened during my residency. Thousands of young gay men died from opportunistic infections. It was years before they identified the virus and discovered treatment regimens that contained—and still haven’t cured—that virus. I remember standing in the ...
The Coronavirus Does Discriminate: How Social Conditions are Shaping the COVID-19 Pandemic
Part of this developing crisis is very well known: On December 31, 2019, Chinese officials reported a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan and identified the novel coronavirus as the causative agent on January 7, 2020. This novel coronavirus spread rapidly, and on March 11, 2020, the
Boston MedFlight Playing a Vital Role in New England’s COVID-19 Response
Boston MedFlight is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that for 35 years has provided critical care transport to patients in need by air and ground. We care for more than 4,700 patients annually, including the most critically ill and injured infants, children and adults. As a nonprofit, our organization provides over $4 million in free and unreimbursed care to patients in need with little or no medical insurance. We have always served as the link between community hospitals and larger tertiary care facilities. Now, as our region and our nation face the COVID-19 pandemic, ...
A Second, Silent Pandemic: Sexual Violence in the time of COVID-19
What happens when “safer-at-home” doesn’t apply to everyone? NOTE: The term sexual violence refers to crimes like sexual assault, rape, and sexual abuse, which can be perpetrated by anyone. Domestic violence includes emotional, physical, and/or sexual harm by a current or former intimate partner. Research into the specific types of violence ...
Primary Care and COVID: Our Role in Flattening the Curve
As it became apparent in early March that COVID would become a global and not only local problem, health systems had to transition from a focus on individual patients who might have been exposed to thinking about a population-guided response. Thus, Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA), an academic community healthcare system based in the Boston area, developed a comprehensive plan for COVID guided by the goal of “most lives and life years saved” that spanned both the hospital and the ambulatory space. This transition happened urgently and iteratively: in a few short weeks, we went from ...
The Forgotten Specialty: Primary Care
As the COVID pandemic devastates the United States, comorbidity has been identified as one of the key factors that increases risk for serious complications. Chronic disease burden in the US, including hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, chronic lung disease, and arthritis, is 28%, compared to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average of 17.5%. Furthermore,
HMS Family Medicine Alumni Spotlight: Daniela Delgado
The Harvard Home for Family Medicine builds upon the growing community of HMS family medicine students, residents, and attendings engaged in family medicine education, research, and mentorship opportunities. While most of our more active participants are based within the Harvard system, our Harvard Medical School students often graduate to residencies further afield. In this series, we’re thrilled to spotlight what some of our recent HMS Family Medicine students have gone on to achieve.
How to Heal Brittle
Broken can often be healed. A fall, a thunderous crash, the screech of fragments flying in many directions. Find the pieces, line them back up again, stick them together somehow, and voila. Sometimes it doesn’t hold, sometimes it takes a long time for the adhesive to fully set, but at some point the pieces come back together. Not quite the same as before, but not so far off either. What is to be done, however, with brittleness? Shattering with a puff of a breeze, breaking in two, leaking salt water with no more force than a gaze. Moving further and ...
Primary Care Saved My Dad's Life
Author: Caroline Barnaby, MLA “Your dad was feeling dizzy today after a dip in the ocean. He thinks he might be experiencing vertigo from swimmer’s ear,” remarked my mum during our weekly phone conversation. “I’m going to schedule an appointment with his doctor, just in case.” It was the summer of 2018, and my dad had just retired after a 42-year career as an elementary school physical education teacher for ...