This archive report was first published on 17 July 2020.
Why Family Physicians Matter ¶
On July 17, 2020, Dr. Jacob Shabani, Chair of the Family Medicine Department at Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi, highlighted the importance of family physicians in bridging the gap in healthcare.
One of the major concerns many patients and families have is getting a regular doctor who understands their health well. Family physicians are all-rounded doctors trained in different fields of medicine to provide comprehensive healthcare to individuals and families.
They offer patient-centered care that takes into consideration the individual symptoms, their holistic health status, and the environment within which they live. Family physicians provide one-stop clinical care for patients with all kinds of health problems, including general consultation, wellness, and health promotion.
Services offered in a family medicine center include disease screening, smoking cessation, and obesity management. Family physicians also provide chronic disease management, offering evidence-based, cost-effective, and coordinated care for common chronic illnesses such as hypertension, diabetes, asthma, and HIV/AIDS.
Having a family physician can benefit individuals in several ways. They get to know your medical history, which helps them make accurate diagnoses, watch for red flags, reconcile your medications, and monitor changes in your health over time.
Family physicians treat a wide variety of diseases and conditions, making them your primary caregiver at any point in time for your children of all ages and adult family members. In the long term, this means you can build a lasting relationship with a family physician.
Having a primary caregiver means you can also rely on your doctor any time, including during emergencies. Family physicians can also recommend specialist doctors when needed and act as your advocate as you navigate your healthcare journey.
They coordinate your care with other specialists to ensure coordinated and non-fragmented care. Having a primary caregiver and their opportunity to understand the history of their patients' and family health is critical in prescribing the correct diagnostic tests to arrive at the correct and timely diagnosis.
Family medicine focuses on disease prevention and health promotion in the process of care delivery by identifying disease risk factors and red flags for complicated illnesses. This approach can reduce instances of misdiagnosis and poor health outcomes, ultimately reducing hospitalizations.
A family physician also looks at family and community influences on the individual's health, ensuring that the care provided does not only improve the individual's health outcome but also the family and community at large.
