Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

According to a recent study in the Annals of Family Medicine patients are seeing their doctor less. That includes any method of contact:

Both patients in contact with primary care physicians and patient contact with these physicians in any form – including in office or over the phone – declined over 2-year periods occurring from 2002 to 2017.

Feel free to read the rest of the article. It’s actually quite funny because the people they interview all have their own theories and rationalizations. It’s a food fight and everyone is hiding behind their lunch tables. It is due to urgent care centers? Is it due to value-based care? Is it due to the cost? Is it just harder to get seen by the doctor?

Then there was this astute observation:

Should residency training be modified, and if so, how?

Hmmmm. Interesting. I would say…..yes. And the how is called Direct Primary Care. How about the residencies embrace this concept and teach their future family doctors how to do it? Or, they could continue to rearrange the chairs on the deck of the Titanic.

Too harsh? Possibly, but there was NO mention of DPC in this study or in the author’s take at the end. We do not exist to them. The overwhelming majority of DPC doctors had NO loss of revenue during the pandemic. How about those primary doctors stuck in the Matrix? Not as lucky.

You would think that this little nugget alone would give pause to the doctors interviewed in the article. Or the AAFP. Or the ACP. Or anyone.

When they are ready to learn about DPC then we will be there for them. Until then we will just leave the light on.

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By Douglas Farrago, MD

Douglas Farrago MD is board certified in the specialty of Family Practice. He is the inventor of a product called the Knee Saver which is currently in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Knee Saver and its knock-offs are worn by many major league baseball catchers. He is also the inventor of the CryoHelmet used by athletes for head injuries as well as migraine sufferers. From 2001 – 2011, Dr. Farrago was the editor and creator of the Placebo Journal which ran for 10 full years. Described as the Mad Magazine for doctors, he and the Placebo Journal were featured in the Washington Post, US News and World Report, the AP, and the NY Times. Douglas Farrago, MD received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Virginia in 1987, his Masters of Education degree in the area of Exercise Science from the University of Houston in 1990, and his Medical Degree from the University of Texas at Houston in 1994. His residency training occurred way up north at the Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine. In his final year, he was elected Chief Resident by his peers. Dr. Farrago has practiced family medicine for twenty-three years, first in Auburn, Maine and now in Forest, Virginia. He founded Forest Direct Primary Care in 2014, which quickly filled in 18 months. Dr. Farrago still blogs every day on his website Authenticmedicine.com and lectures worldwide about the present crisis in our healthcare system and the effect it has on the doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Farrago’s has written three books on direct primary care: The Official Guide to Starting Your Own Direct Primary Care Practice, The Direct Primary Care Doctor’s Daily Motivational Journal and Slowing the Churn in Direct Primary Care (While Also Keeping Your Sanity) are all best sellers in this genre. He is a leading expert in direct primary care model and lectures medical students, residents, and doctors on how to start their own DPC practice. He retired from clinical medicine in October, 2020.

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