Canadian family physician Médecin de famille canadien
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Objective To gauge the public's opinion of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario's (CPSO's) policy on how primary care physicians should accept new patients. Design Deliberative citizens' council. Setting Toronto, Ont. ⋯ Counsel members also encouraged the CPSO to publicize its policy as widely as possible, so that potential patients undergoing screening in the future will recognize that this goes against the CPSO's policy and can take appropriate action if they wish. Conclusion How family physicians accept new patients into their practices is a sensitive issue. The CPSO policy provides guidance on how new patients should be admitted, which, if it is appropriately enacted, seems reasonable to informed members of the public.
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Objective To examine the usefulness of a symptom-based case-finding questionnaire (CFQ) and the Medical Research Council (MRC) dyspnea scale in identifying which individuals with known risk factors for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) require targeted spirometry in primary care. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Three community primary care practices in Ontario. ⋯ Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.62 (95% CI 0.58 to 0.67; P < .001) for the total CFQ scores and 0.64 (95% CI 0.60 to 068; P < .001) for the MRC dyspnea scores. Conclusion In adults with known risk factors, the likelihood of having moderate to severe COPD is increased in those who report 3 or more common respiratory symptoms and marked functional limitation resulting from dyspnea. However, selecting individuals for spirometry based on symptoms alone will identify less than half of those with moderate to severe COPD.
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Objective To explore the challenges academic FPs face when assessing patients' functional ability to return to work; to produce a detailed account of FPs' experiences and views on workplace disability management; to describe which parts of the disability assessment and management process FPs would like to modify or relinquish; and to provide solutions to streamline the overall process of assessing disability. Design Qualitative phenomenologic study using in-depth interviews. Setting A family health team located in a large urban teaching hospital in Toronto, Ont. ⋯ Conclusion As in other areas of medicine, the role of the FP is to restore health; optimize social, psychological, and functional capabilities; and minimize the negative effects of injury. Assessing functional abilities for return to work can be challenging, as FPs are trained to focus on assessing and treating symptoms rather than on determining occupational functioning. Functional assessment forms do not provide enough information for physicians and serve as a poor communication tool among the stakeholders involved with returning an injured worker to work.