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The term comprehensiveness was introduced into the literature as early as the 1960s and is regarded as a core attribute of primary care. Although comprehensive care is a primary care research priority encompassing patient and provider experience, cost, and health outcomes, there has been a lack of focus on consolidating existing definitions.
Using the most up to date data available, we present the first edition of the Family Medicine Factbook, a curated series of basic analyses intended to provide a broad perspective on family medicine and family physicians themselves. We hope that patients, physicians, payors, policymakers, and advocates will benefit from learning more about this keystone specialty of U.S. primary care, gaining a better understanding of the physicians’ geographic distribution, the populations served and services provided, their team-based care leadership and the challenges faced in the course of their work. We welcome your feedback, as we hope this is but the first in a series of data-driven insights into the contributions of the family medicine workforce.
Higher continuity of care has consistently been linked to better patient outcomes, and health care systems should consider ways to better the practice, according to researchers. Continuity of care — the ongoing relationship between patients and their physicians and a core attribute of high-quality primary care — plays an essential role in positive outcomes, Andrew Bazemore, MD, MPH, senior vice president of research and policy for the American Board of Family Medicine, and colleagues wrote in Annals of Family Medicine. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of these continuous, trusting relationships as disinformation and patient distrust spread, they added.