WTF is primary care

[habanero]

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I realize this is a really stupid question.....that said, I've done a fair amount of research to try and figure out what primary care is.

I would divide medicine into two categories: research and practice. Research meaning you are in a lab and don't actually treat patients. Practice meaning you are one of the many types of doctors that treat patients, in a plethora of ways - surgery, ER, orthopaedics, etc., anything where one practices medicine upon people.

Is this the same distinction as Research/Primary Care?

Many of the definitions of primary care I've seen say something like this: 'Primary care' means the practice of general or family medicine." or
"the first care a patient receives. It is often a family physician." These definitions seem to exclude many professions in medicine where a doctor actually treats patients.

So I return to my original question, WTF is primary care? 😱

 

[MegG]

I realize this is a really stupid question.....that said, I've done a fair amount of research to try and figure out what primary care is.

I would divide medicine into two categories: research and practice. Research meaning you are in a lab and don't actually treat patients. Practice meaning you are one of the many types of doctors that treat patients, in a plethora of ways - surgery, ER, orthopaedics, etc., anything where one practices medicine upon people.

Is this the same distinction as Research/Primary Care?

Many of the definitions of primary care I've seen say something like this: 'Primary care' means the practice of general or family medicine." or
"the first care a patient receives. It is often a family physician." These definitions seem to exclude many professions in medicine where a doctor actually treats patients.

So I return to my original question, WTF is primary care? 😱

I'm not sure, and I'm kind of new to all this-but I always thought it was like your family doc.

 

[beanbean]

Primary care usually refers to the non-specialist/general practice people in fields such as internal medicine, family med and pediatrics.

 

[WholeLottaGame7]

I realize this is a really stupid question.....that said, I've done a fair amount of research to try and figure out what primary care is.

I would divide medicine into two categories: research and practice. Research meaning you are in a lab and don't actually treat patients. Practice meaning you are one of the many types of doctors that treat patients, in a plethora of ways - surgery, ER, orthopaedics, etc., anything where one practices medicine upon people.

Is this the same distinction as Research/Primary Care?

Many of the definitions of primary care I've seen say something like this: 'Primary care' means the practice of general or family medicine." or
"the first care a patient receives. It is often a family physician." These definitions seem to exclude many professions in medicine where a doctor actually treats patients.

So I return to my original question, WTF is primary care? 😱

Hospitals have varying levels of care that are defined by the personnel and resources they have available. It also roughly corresponds to the order in which you see a doctor.

Primary care is basically the first doctor you see when you have a problem. This is often a family practice doc, an ER physician, OB/GYN, pediatricians, maybe even internal medicine (not sure about that one).

I'm not sure what delineates secondary from tertiary care, but they are your more advanced treatment options such as radiological services, elective surgical procedures, etc.

The point is, you don't schedule an appt for an MRI or an operation directly, but your primary care provider refers you to these services.

 

[LabMonster]

A primary care physician provides comprehensive medical care from birth to death using all available tools and treatment modalities. This means you follow a patients care over long stretches of their life and orchestrate their interactions with specialists, therapists, etc.

Conversely, specialists typically spend a shorter period of time with patient's while attempting to synthesize a diagnosis or derive a treatment plan - after that, they will not follow the case any more.

 

[habanero]

Hospitals have varying levels of care that are defined by the personnel and resources they have available. It also roughly corresponds to the order in which you see a doctor.

Primary care is basically the first doctor you see when you have a problem. This is often a family practice doc, an ER physician, OB/GYN, pediatricians, maybe even internal medicine (not sure about that one).

I'm not sure what delineates secondary from tertiary care, but they are your more advanced treatment options such as radiological services, elective surgical procedures, etc.

The point is, you don't schedule an appt for an MRI or an operation directly, but your primary care provider refers you to these services.

So, given that my interest is in opthalmology, orthopaedics, and neuroscience, primary care has nothing to do with these? Would looking at residency placements be the best way to evaluate where a school excels?

 

[modelslashactor]

Yes, optho, ortho, and neuro would all be specialties and not primary care. You could theoretically get into any of these programs from any school with good board scores and research, but it would help to go to any big name school, especially if the school has a big name doctor to write you a letter. All the top schools are pretty well-rounded specialty-wise so it shouldn't be hard to find the top programs.

Be careful, though, because if you go to a school where everyone is gunning for the same thing, someone will inevitably lose out.

 

[WholeLottaGame7]

So, given that my interest is in opthalmology, orthopaedics, and neuroscience, primary care has nothing to do with these? Would looking at residency placements be the best way to evaluate where a school excels?

Opthalmology might be primary care, not sure, but it seems like it could fit the bill. Orthopedics and neuroscience are definitely secondary/tertiary care.

You can look at where schools place students into residencies, though I doubt I'd choose a medical school based entirely on this. Interests change frequently, and you'd hate to choose a school that does crappily in surgery because they had a great OB/GYN program that you thought you were interested in at the time.

 

[Rendar5]

Primary care docs know nothing about everything, specialists know everything about nothing. That's about it.

 

[dmtang]

LOL. very simple. u are on the right track though buddy... i'm talking to the first original poster.

if you look at usnews, u see 2 types of rankings for med school-- research and primary care. if you want to actually practice medicine and see patients (not run clinical research programs or the like), you want to look at primary care rankings.

 

[NapeSpikes]

if you look at usnews, u see 2 types of rankings for med school-- research and primary care. if you want to actually practice medicine and see patients (not run clinical research programs or the like), you want to look at primary care rankings.

The above quoted post is not true. Primary Care does not include most specialties, so Primary Care rankings are mostly irrelevant to people like the OP who are interested in neuro or ortho. Specialists do, however, still "actually practice medicine." Let's not confuse the OP, hmm? 😉

 

[habanero]

The above quoted post is not true. Primary Care does not include specialties, so Primary Care rankings are mostly irrelevant to people interested specializing, even though specialists do "actually practice medicine." Let's not confuse the OP, hmm? 😉

Nape, I think you and the previous poster are getting to the point of my question...if you are interested in specializing and providing secondary or tertiary care, what would you look at in evaluating a school's adequacy in preparing you/helping you to achieve that goal.

 

[NapeSpikes]

First thing I'd do is I'd look at the MSAR to see what percentage of graduates of each school go into the specialties that interest you. Match lists, like you mentioned, are also good. Knowing the school's average score for Step 1 may help. Also, at research powerhouses, you can find more research opportunities in any subspecialty you want, and that may be important come residency apps. Research rankings also equal prestige equals more doors. Keep in mind, you can get into ortho or neuro from any school, but these qualities will help. In other words, your best bet would be doing well at a big name research-oriented institution that has a lot of neuro, ortho, optho matches, and high mean Step scores. I'm simplifying, of course, but that's a start. 👍