How primary care is a prescription for healing hallway medicine
By: Dr. Andrew Boozary, Dr. Michael Kidd and Dr. Aisha Lofters
Medicine’s history is tied to the pursuit of a fix. If someone is ailing, they may seek to feel better, but almost always prefer a cure. And maybe now, more than ever, we all expect that cure to happen immediately.
Our health system was designed to combat sickness, mostly in the hospital setting, and not to prevent sickness or support the relationships needed to thrive outside a clinic. This has built up serious pressure, and in some ways, this has always been primary care’s major challenge — our first point of contact with a family doctor, nurse practitioner or any other primary care provider, is grounded in treating an array of conditions, from back pain to dizziness, while also having to manage our long-term risks. Much of this work involves screening patients for things like high blood pressure or cancer, where the consequences of inaction may feel invisible.
And the wins of primary care aren’t usually silver bullets or swift procedures, either. They might involve creating safe spaces and having tough conversations to better get at behaviour change. Or catching a worrying pattern of lab results early on to avoid a worse health outcome.
Yet, in this era of Big Data that seeks tangible performance metrics, how do we measure things like the benefits of a relationship between a family doctor and patient? Or even begin to capture primary care’s secret ingredient: trust?
