J Am Board Fam Med
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A family physician who has long tried to prevent patients from falling victim to health scams and disinformation recently confronted an unexpected challenge of his own.
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Despite antiviral agents that can cure the disease, many individuals with Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) remain untreated. Primary care clinicians can play an important role in HCV treatment but often feel they do not have the requisite skills. ⋯ A multifaceted primary care improvement initiative increased clinician confidence and was associated with an increase in the proportion of HCV RNA positive patients who initiated curative treatment.
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The National Academies of Medicine report on Implementing High-Quality Primary Care calls for a transformation of the primary care to a "whole person" model that is person-centered, relationship-based and takes into account the social, spiritual, emotional and behavioral aspects of health. However, our current delivery tools, such as the SOAP Note, do not sufficiently capture and organize the delivery of these elements in practice. To explore how to remedy this, an Integrative Health Learning Collaborative (IHLC) was established to implement and test new tools for changing primary care practices toward whole person care. ⋯ This online learning collaborative supported practices implementing a whole person care model in primary care and improved the understanding, skills, and delivery ability of whole person care in all clinics completing the program.
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One of the unique characteristics of family medicine is that although we cannot meet every specific need of each patient at each visit we continuously advance the health of the communities that surround our practices. Family physicians aim to improve overall health outcomes across our practice populations, not just individual by individual, nor just for those who arrive in our office for care. ⋯ Family medicine improves outcomes for everyone, including the unseen. This JABFM issue epitomizes many of these distinguishing characteristics of family medicine-what does it take (how)? When? Where?