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Value of a Family Physician

It is no doubt, that today the medical field has grown leaps and bounds both in terms of diagnosis and treatments offered for various ailments. There arevirtually specialists and surgeons available in every domain of health treating  a particular type of disease. Right from anaesthesiologists, there are specialists such as cardiologists, dermatologists, diabetologists, gastroenterologists, gynecologists, nephrologists, neurologists, oncologists, obstetricians, orthopaedics, pathologists, paediatricians, rheumatologists, urologists  and  psychiatrists who help patients to recover from their pain and agony with  proper treatments and guidance.  Further with the aid of technology, these specialists and surgeons continue to save thousands of invaluable human lives every day.

But still whenever any of our kith and kin suffer from a normal flu or a severe chest pain, the first thing that many of us do is to call our family doctor. Even in this era of advanced medical treatment, the role of a family doctor is indispensable as he is the one who knows not only the entire medical history of the patient but also the entire medical history of the family as a whole.

The family physicians have a deep knowledge of family history of ailments and the subsequent medications and understand the dynamics of the family and accordingly carry out the treatment. 
The family doctor not only treats the patient but also assess the situation and accordingly make referrals to make necessary test for future diagnosis.

Importance of Family Physicians
Family physicians possess special skills to identify concerns, focus issues, negotiate plans and help their alleviate pain and agony. They are experts at managing common complaints, recognizing important diseases, uncovering hidden conditions and managing most acute and chronic illnesses.  They also acquire and maintain competencies that depend on the needs of the patients and the families they serve.

Family physicians do not simply treat ailments of the patient alone, they also take in to consideration of the entire family.  They emphasize health promotion and disease prevention for the entire family.  The specialty of family physician role is not only patient centred but more of a family focused.  Family physicians have an integral role in the prevention, diagnosis and Management of any chronic illness.

Family physicians must be familiar with risk a broad array of factors, be confident in examining and evaluating and referring experts for further treatment.  The work of a family doctor is hard and demanding as he does not provide cure to any particular disease or ailment. He has to deal with patients in every age group, with every imaginable symptom and complaint, with the full spectrum of challenges. But, since most of the patient’s medical history is known to him, most of the family physicians primarily use their experience and diagnostic skills and determine the cause of ill health of the patient and treat accordingly.

Family physicians are the linchpin in the continuum of care of people. When some of  their patients need specialist treatment, they accordingly guide and  coordinate with the hospital.  They remain as the guardian of the person, making sure that treatments provided by different doctors  produce the desired results for their patient.

Family physician is a skilled clinician.
Family physician is someone with excellent competence in the patient-centred clinical approach.Family physicians are skilled at dealing with ambiguity and uncertainty.  Whatever be the problem, he is someone who could understand the patient and clear off the apprehensions about the disease or ailment and accordingly guide the patient with confidence.

Family physicians handle all kinds of patients, such as  chronic diseases, emotional problems and  acute disorders.  They use their knowledge about the ailment or disease and carefully scrutinize the data with their past medical records to develop a comprehensive approach to the management of disease and illness in patients and their families and decide on the future course of the treatment.

Family physicians are also adept at working with patients to reach common ground on the definition of problems, goals of treatment, and roles of physician and patient in management.  They are skilled at providing information to patients in a manner that respects their autonomy and empowers them to"take harge” of their own health care and make decisions in their best interests.  Family physicians have an understanding and appreciation of the human condition, especially the nature of suffering and patients’ response to sickness. They are aware of their strengths and limitations and recognize when their own personal issues interfere with effective care.

Building Relationships
The patient-physician relationship is central to the role of the family physician. Most of the patients have an ongoing relationship with their family physician, often getting to know each patients as individuals. Over the years, the relationship turns in to a bondage and lasts long enough beyond the medical realms.  It has been proved that the bond of trust between the patient and the physician is vital to the diagnostic and therapeutic process. It forms the basis for the physician-patient relationship. Besides, strengthening the bondage, the family physician-patient relationship also provides considerable healing power.  Always working closely with the patient significantly improves the patient’s health.  This therapeutic alliance involves specific and important physician obligations.

As a result, the family physician earns tremendous trust among the family members and commands a good respect.  The respect is earned through a special blend of the medical knowledge, competence and service orientation.

Further, the relationship gives the patient, the sense of feeling in the minds of the patients that the family physician is always there for them and their family.  From the patient’s point of view also, the kind of relationship makes them feel easy and express freely and clearly to the family physician about the ailments and sufferings.

Overall, it is a win-win situation as the patient is likely to experience better care because, he or she knows the physician well and he also understands their background and medical history.  In many cases the continuous doctor-patient relationships leads to the best health outcomes for patients.

The role of family physicians, who provide patient and their family a comprehensive, coordinated and accessible health care, will continue for ages.  He is the indispensable part of the family and takes professional responsibility for the well being of a family.  For the fact remains, that any advancement of medical care can never substitute for the human side of the doctor-patient relationship.

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