J Am Board Fam Med
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Eliminating health and health care inequities is a longstanding goal of multiple United States health agencies, but overwhelming scientific evidence suggests that health and health care inequities persist in the United States, despite decades of research and initiatives to alleviate them. Because of its comprehensiveness, studying health inequities in the context of primary care allows for the use of multiple paradigms and methodologic approaches to understanding almost any state of health, disease, social challenge, or societal circumstance a patient or group of patients might face. We argue in this special communication that the many features/advantages of primary care research have valuable contributions to make in reducing health inequity, and scientists, journals, and funders should increase the incorporation of primary care approaches and findings into their portfolios to better understand and end health inequity.
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Despite the proven benefits, less than 10% of physicians have adopted point-of-care ultrasound in primary care. Physician and practice characteristics, such as being a family physician and working in rural settings, increase the odds that a physician will adopt POCUS in their practice.
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This is an opinion piece that examines the dichotomy of "fast medicine" (which involves high medical use and spending) and what I refer to as "slow medicine". It discusses ethical questions around which of these two frameworks really confers better "health" to patients - using examples from a real patient scenario of mine who was considering undergoing a relatively high-risk carotid endarterectomy. It then re-affirms the importance of primary care to conferring health and the ultimate value of primary care, or "slow medicine". I believe it is a timely discussion as we continue to advocate for more primary care resources in our health care system.
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In this narrative essay, the author, a family physician, remembers his encounters with patients at his 2008 retirement tea following 34 years in practice. The physician and the patients explored their experiences working together and expressed their gratitude to each other. The author looks back at how these long-standing relationships led to better care and better health.
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This study aimed to determine the rates of psychiatric medication users in the United States between 1999 to 2018 for different medication categories by age and sex. ⋯ The rates of individuals reporting the use of any psychiatric medications increased over the last few decades. Rates and patterns of medication users have large variations by medication category, age, and sex, but these patterns of use were stable for most medication categories.