Primary Care = Good

Here's a little summary of Barbara Starfield's presentation at thei year's WONCA.

 'Grand lady' of public health proclaims: The best care is primary care -- FP Report

 ... For example, in the United States, a "20 percent increase in the number of primary care physicians is associated with a 5 percent decrease in mortality (40 fewer deaths per 100,000)," she said. But the benefit is even greater if the primary care physician is a family physician. Adding one more FP per 10,000 people "is associated with 70 fewer deaths per 100,000, which is a 9 percent reduction in mortality," she said.

This year, we have seven students out of ~125 4th year students who will going into family medicine - the fewest in 15 years. Somehow, they are not getting the message that this is important .. and they are not getting the message that this is good fulfilling work. The message that they hear - from misinformed specialists - is that "family medicine is dying." ugh.