Why are we being offered family medicine?

A family doctor is an important person who combines a coach, a communicator, a doctor, and a personal medical manager. And when these 4 attributes coincide in one person, it's a victory! The most important thing you entrust to the doctor is your health. By the way, even the time. And these are the two main assets of a person: time and health. 

Practical medicine has recently been an area of my direct interest. As a user and as a leader, I ask myself the questions of potential clients: "Why do I need all this?" 

In the era of "Tesla in Space," "total digitization and integration," we want to see medicine as human yet integrated as possible. How to make choices? 

1. Make an appointment for your first consultation and communicate your intentions. Are you looking for a doctor for you and your family? Ask the doctor to tell you about himself or herself. Trust me, this is the litmus test. If the doctor doesn't agree to that conversation, don't waste your time. Just leave. Yes, it took 20 minutes and 400-600 hryvnias, but it saved the most valuable thing. A negative result is also a result. If you are told that the doctor treats, rather than telling you, there was no dialogue. Because you need a doctor to be your partner in managing your health. And you need to talk to each other. 

2. Find out where the doctor studied and where he is studying now. What seminars he attends, and what areas of medicine he is interested in. This is important. Because a good family doctor is a complex approach. You need to know a lot about everything. I come to the conclusion that a family doctor is cooler and more complicated than a narrow specialist. The narrow specialist proudly says "that's not my area," and the good family doctor doesn't have "his areas" or "not his." Everything makes a whole. 

3. Ask what protocols the doctor uses in his work. It is important! There are basic evidential protocols, for example, in Ukraine there are Finnish, British, US protocols. As for the US protocols, it's like jurisprudence: if someone once wrote about it, then you can. Precedent medicine is like law! The key is liability insurance and a good lawyer. 

4. Ask, how will the doctor communicate with you? In person, through the clinic reception? Only in consultations? 

5. Ask what kind of colleagues the doctor has among narrow specialists? How does he communicate with them? How does he refer them? It's important that the doctor be your manager between all the other doctors, tests, and diagnostics. If you like all the answers to your questions, you've already learned a lot about each other. Read reviews, ask if the doctor has any clients that you can get feedback from. Believe me, your competent family doctor is very important and valuable. It is a timely defined risks, it saves you time and money for unnecessary examinations, it is an intermediary between you and all the other doctors who understand what to do, when and where. Stay healthy! Have a great search!