What is Family Medicine?
A
family medicine doctor is a general practitioner who provides primary care services to individuals from birth through geriatrics. Because family medicine doctors can—and often do—treat the whole family, they often have a thorough and first-hand understanding of their patient’s family medical history, resulting in personalized care guided by practical knowledge.
Focused on the Family
For families of all types, a family practice can be the answer to an otherwise hectic schedule. Instead of having to travel to multiple doctors at a variety of offices, parents can take their children, grandparents and themselves to a single primary care practitioner.
Fluent in Family History
Family medicine physicians can be uniquely positioned to better understand an individual’s family history if they have treated other members of their family. Although a verbal family history is collected by any form of primary care physician, a family medicine doctor's hands-on experience can provide them with a first-hand understanding, leading to more targeted and personalized care.
Experienced in a Variety of Medial Specialties
Family medicine doctors are general practitioners, meaning that they receive training in a variety of specialties and subspecialties, including OB/GYN, geriatrics, pediatrics, sports medicine and even pharmacology. Because the full breadth of medicine is encompassed in their training, they are ready to meet the wide-ranging needs of their patients.
When it comes to many minor procedures, such as annual well-woman examinations and cancer screenings, they are able to provide the resources patients need in-office, offering an extremely convenient solution to many common maladies.
Collaborative With Other Specialties
In addition to providing some of this specialized care themselves, within their own practice, their familiarity with these areas make them extremely adept at coordinating care and orchestrating referrals to specialists when needed. Regardless of where your journey takes you, a family medicine doctor is there to help get and keep you healthy.
Contact Us
If you would like to talk to a representative about your primary care options, please call
773-878-3627.
