Making the Right Choice.
Know all the Facts and Explore a Career in Family MedicineFamily Medicine is a medical specialty that provides continuing and comprehensive primary health care for individuals and families. Being a family physician allows you to focus on the whole patient. Specialists focus on a specific disease, disorder or organ. Family medicine is a "customizable" specialty allowing a broad scope of practice ranging from urban settings, rural settings or academic family medicine. Family medicine is centered on the personal relationship with patients sometimes treating the entire family.
Family Medicine integrates the biological, clinical and behavioral sciences, and its scope encompasses all ages, both sexes, each organ system and every disease entity. Family Medicine includes health promotion, disease prevention, health maintenance, counseling, patient education, diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic illnesses in a variety of health care settings. Family physicians serve as the entry point for most of a patient's health care needs and more patients are seen by family doctors than any other specialty. Family physicians are advocates for the patient in coordinating the use of the entire health care system and take continuing responsibility for providing the patient's long-term care.