Brilliant Family Practitioners?

[LukeWhite]

A sort of different question...

One often hears that such-and-such a doctor is a "brilliant surgeon," or a "brilliant psychiatrist," etc., to the point where the phrases have worked themselves into the common consciousness. It's very rare to hear that a doctor is a "brilliant family practitioner" though.

While some of this is probably justified, as the specialties associated with brilliance have gotten that reputation for a reason, it's clear that many people at the top of their game go into primary care.

So what makes a "brilliant generalist" ? Does anybody have broad ideas of this, or have you encountered specific doctors that innovated in a memorable way?

Thanks all!

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[zontal]

brilliance in primary care does not necessarily mean how much you know about how many,it does come with a genuine interest in the patient and his problems and your ability to help and call for help when you need it.Believe it or not, if your patients trust you, they believe in you and your ability to help and direct them to the point that the most brilliant surgeon is the one that you recommend to them and not the one who is the talk of town.To survive in the real world primary care you gotta earn the trust and respect of your patients,'cos they already have it at the back of their minds that there is no place for 'non-brilliance' in the medical profession.
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Give and it shall be given unto you. Be cool.

 

[gherelin]

a brilliant fp most of us have read anatole broyard-or at least parts-of anatomy of an illness, and of course william carlos williams and checkov-both general practitioners. if you wander the web you'll find amazing people screwing around with the idea of medicine and medical culture in new and amazing ways-they're often pre-family medicine people. it attracts the brilliant and different, among others. not to say there are not brilliant people in the other specialities. at all. but family medicine is good for the brilliant iconoclast and you'll find a lot of those types there.

 

[Celiac Plexus]

People are described as "brilliant" by the great unwashed often when they discover something that creates sweeping change/effect in the field. FP docs don't typically discover much, or innovate in an earth-shattering way... Therefore, there are not that many FP docs that are known for medicine.

There are however a lot of bright, motivated, and empathetic human beings that go in to FP. I am destined for a surgical field, but one of my favorite, all-time best rotations was FM. My preceptor was one ofthe smartest, funniest guys I have ever met. He was also an amazing teacher whose knowledge seemed boundless. However, there are not too many people who have ever heard of him, much less would describe him as "brilliant". Though I would describe him as such.

 

[secretwave101]

FP's are known more for varied interests than for great discoveries in medicine. As one poster mentioned, WCW is a good example - a writer (creative, that is) as well as a doctor.

People could argue that Osler was a brilliant FP - no question he was brilliant, but he probably leaned toward IM than FP, although I don't think either specialty existed in his time (not sure about that). He was the broad-based doc that FP's aspire to these days, though.

Anyway, "brilliant" is a subjective term. People who love the details of medicine are usually not the ones in FP, and are usually the ones who actually make discoveries in the field. Those people usually aren't the ones who have as wide and varied of interests as FP's.

Note: the above is only debatably true if applied broadly - if applied to specific instances, its totally false!

 

[PACtoDOC]

Often times it is within the physician community where FP docs get slightly less respect. There are arrogant specialists that may look down on FP's but the reality is that it is the FP getting the 45 hams, 16 bottles of wine, and 900 Christmas cards from all the area specialists who want their referrals during the holidays. Most family physicians don't grade their level of acceptance by their peers as much as they do the acceptance from their patients. To be a good FM doc can be as or more fulfilling personally than any other field.

Brilliance is determined mostly by the patient anyway, not the colleague.

 

[secretwave101]

Incidentally, I'm friends with a guy who scored what could be described as the 99th percentile of the 99th percentile group on the USMLE's - and he recently started an FP residency. I'm sure he could have gone anywhere, but he was most interested in FP.

It's fun to think about the fact that there's an FP out there (many, actually) who have significantly better board scores than a huge number of surgeons, dermatologists, cardiologists etc. The stereotypes about the different specialties don't really offer much truth, in reality.