Big Doctoring in America: Profiles in Primary CareThe general practitioner was once America's doctor. The GP delivered babies, removed gallbladders, and sat by the bedsides of the dying. But as the twentieth century progressed, the pattern of medical care in the United States changed dramatically. By the 1960s, the GP was almost extinct. The later part of the twentieth century, however, saw a rebirth of the idea of the GP in the form of primary care practitioners. In this engrossing collection of oral histories and provocative essays about the past and future of generalism in health care, Fitzhugh Mullan—a pediatrician, writer, and historian—argues that primary care is a fascinating, important, and still endangered calling. In conveying the personal voices of primary care practitioners, Mullan sheds light on the political and economic contradictions that confront American medicine. Mullan interviewed dozens of primary care practitioners—family physicians, internists, pediatricians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants—asking them about their lives and their work. He explains how, during the last forty years, the primary care movement has emerged built on the principles of "big doctoring"--coordinated, comprehensive care over time. This book is essential reading for understanding core issues of the current health care dilemma. As our country struggles with managed care, market reforms, and cost containment strategies in medicine, Big Doctoring in America provides an engrossing and illuminating look at those in the trenches of the profession. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
academic American became Big Doctoring Boston called Christ House cians clinical clinicians developed disease evidence-based medicine experience faculty family medicine family physician family practice father funding future generalist going graduated health care system health center Health Service HealthPartners high school homeless hospital hospitalist ical interest internal medicine internists issues kids knew learned lived loved managed managed care Medicaid medical education medical school medical students mother moved National Health Service nurse practitioners oral history organization osteopathic patients pediatrician pediatrics percent person physi physician assistant political population prac primary care physicians primary care providers problems profession professional public health referrals residency program role rural specialists specialty staff started talk teaching things thought tice tients tion took University wanted women wonderful York
Popular passages
Page xi - ... University of Hawaii School of Public Health Honolulu, Hawaii Mr. Chairman, I am Dr. Jerrold Michael, Professor of Public Health at the School of Public Health at the University of Hawaii, where I have served for 19 years, the past 18 as Dean of the School of Public Health. Prior to that I served for 20 years as a commissioned officer in the United States Public Health Service, retiring at the end of 1970 as Assistant Surgeon General. My topics on this panel are the Public Health in the USRelated...
References to this book
Innovation-driven Health Care: 34 Key Concepts for Transformation Richard L. Reece Limited preview - 2007 |