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Last Call: Reflecting on 64 Years in Medicine
On April 16, 2024, I took night call for the last time, 64 years after I first took night call. For the last few months, I have been thinking about... -
Leadership Doesn’t Have to be Lonely
Kirsten Meisinger, MD, MHCDS It can be lonely at the top, but it doesn’t have to be. Health care professionals who excel at patient care often go on... -
“Good Insurance”
It all started innocuously enough in the week leading up to Christmas in 2019 with a runny nose, a cough, and some fussiness. All pretty standard for...
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.
Treating Pain During an Opioid Epidemic in the Primary Care Setting
By: Mahmud Ibrahim, MD and Linda Girgis, MD According to the CDC, there are an estimated 50 million adults (or 20.4% of the population) in the US suffering from chronic pain. Additionally, there are 19.6 million adults with high-impact chronic pain. Chronic pain is defined as pain that typically lasts for longer than 12 weeks. While pain may serve as a warning of possible injury, chronic pain can last for months to years. Many chronic pain patients seek ...
HMS Family Medicine Alumni Spotlight
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. Name:
Pursuing Primary Care at Harvard Medical School
What influences Harvard Medical School (HMS) students to pursue a career in primary care? In our study, we surveyed HMS graduates from 1980 to 2016 who matched into internal medicine, family medicine, and pediatrics residencies to dig deep into this question. We learned that three out of four students who started HMS with an interest in primary care stuck with their goal. Over the 37 years, the ...
Where does the individual physician fit in the new medicine?
By Steven A. Barrett, MD, FAAFP I am realizing that practice management in the new medicine is derived more from “group-think” than individual initiative. While this might work well for large medical organizations, where does it leave the imaginative individual physician trying to create improved medical care delivery systems? Of course, I am speaking from personal experience and raising this issue as a challenge to our medical system to be more open and inclusive and take advantage of all available bright ideas for improvement. ...
The Art of the Referral
By Linda Girgis, MD In our current practice of medicine, many people don’t understand what a primary care physician (PCP) does. Some are disillusioned that the PCP serves as a glorified receptionist, just sitting in their offices to pass out referrals to specialists, the real doctors. Often, patients call my office for a referral to a specialist based on a problem that we never treated them for. Many people don’t understand why the receptionist cannot just give them a referral. A referral involves medical decision making and is part of ...
P2P+E: Understanding the employer role in an improved patient-to-primary care physician relationship
Creating sustainable, timely care delivery models designed to help patients achieve improved health outcomes is a challenge. The complex, chronic conditions of America’s workforce are driving the need for these models forcing employers into the position of leading health care delivery innovation. Employers, the primary source of insurance for 55.7% of Americans[i], have found themselves tasked with reducing healthcare’s unprecedented, rising costs to protect employee health, talent retention, productivity, and ...
