Let's Put an End to Annual Physicals

Health care providers have the tech to replace ineffective, wasteful checkups.

 This doctor is taking aim at our broken medical system, one story at a time

Patients and physicians are fed up with the 15-minute appointment. Using narrative medicine, Rita Charon is teaching a generation of health care providers to listen better — with the help of literature.

 Walgreens to Open Doctors’ Offices at Its U.S. Stores

The largest U.S. drugstore chain by stores is pairing with primary-care provider VillageMD to open 500 to 700 clinics at Walgreens sites across the country over the next five years.

 When Health Care Moves Online, Many Patients Are Left Behind

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, more doctors are turning to telemedicine. That's a problem for tens of millions on the wrong side of the digital divide.

 Why primary care is in crisis-and how to fix it

There is an insidious misunderstanding of primary care. Most people, including all too many physicians and medical school faculty, think of primary care as treating only the “simple stuff.” That explains in part why they are prone to tell aspiring medical students that they are “too good for primary care.”

Why I'm Becoming a Primary-Care Doctor

The U.S. has a shortage of family physicians, but many med students avoid the specialty, stigmatizing it as uninteresting.

Dear Shonda Rhimes: Can you make primary care as sexy as ‘Grey’s Anatomy’?

Investment in primary care is especially important right now. Fewer and fewer medical students are choosing the field, even as an aging population requires more and more primary care. Students who do enter the field experience high rates of depression, burnout, and early exodus.

DO vs MD: Similarities, Differences, and Which One is Better

While the majority of doctors in the US have MDs (Medical Degree), others have DO degrees (Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree). Here, the similarities and differences between an MD and DO—and which one is best for you.

How Do We Get More People to Become Primary Care Physicians?

Don't require an undergraduate degree before medical school. We're currently asking people to go into a relatively lower-paying field after accumulating a minimum of eight years of educational debt and three years of rapidly growing interest during residency training for family medicine, internal medicine, or pediatrics—why? Virtually no other country in the world outside of the U.S. requires an undergraduate degree to enter medical school, yet they are still quite capable of producing excellent physicians.

How Primary Care Heals Health Disparities

Primary care is not a panacea, of course. Sometimes you really do need a brain surgeon to save your life. But more and more high-performing health care networks are noticing the benefits and reorganizing care delivery...

Military medics and corpsmen could help fill the shortage of primary care providers

Nations with strong primary care systems enjoy better health, and spend less money, than those that do not. Although American spends more on health care than any other nation, our access to primary care is worse than in most high-income countries.

Primary Care Doctors Aren't Doing Enough to Fight the Spread of STDs

Sexually transmitted diseases are often asymptomatic​, so screening is essential. “If providers don’t ask the questions and don’t apply the screening recommendations, the majority of STDs will be missed.”

Primary Care Is In Crisis. Here’s One Way To Fix It

The primary care shortage is a complex problem, and it will require a range of solutions, from exposing students to primary care even before they enter college, to reducing student debt so that there is less pressure to choose high-income specialties.

The Disappearing Doctor: How Mega-Mergers Are Changing the Business of Medical Care

Is the doctor in? In this new medical age of urgent care centers and retail clinics, that’s not a simple question. Nor does it have a simple answer, as primary care doctors become increasingly scarce.

The Specialists’ Stranglehold on Medicine

Every patient should have one trusted doctor who is responsible for his or her overall health. Resources must be allocated to expand those doctors’ education and training. And then we have to pay them more.

Time Is Right for 24-hour Primary Care Clinics

Now a rarity, small primary care practices -- even those still thriving today -- risk succumbing to this tide of obsolescence, not unlike local department stores and indoor shopping malls.

What are the Differences Between Primary Care Offices & Retail Clinics?

There are obvious differences between retail clinics and primary care practices; however, retaining a primary care doctor and frequenting the same retail clinic, when necessary, isn’t an awful practice. Ask your primary care doctor which local clinic they prefer at your next visit.

With Direct Primary Care, It’s Just Doctor and Patient

There’s no waiting room at Linnea Meyer’s tiny primary-care practice in downtown Boston. That’s because there’s rarely a wait to see her. She has only 50 patients to date and often interacts with them by text, phone or email. There’s no office staff because Dr. Meyer doesn’t charge for visits or file insurance claims. Patients pay her a monthly fee—$25 to $125, depending on age—which covers all the primary care they need.