Why is primary care so important to improving overall health?
Primary care is about treating the whole person. This is the exact lesson learned in any work that involves complex systems - the complex system in this case is the person we’re treating.
It is possible to optimize part of a system to an extreme that sub-optimizes overall system performance. An example of this in health care is an extreme focus on a person’s liver or heart, perfecting treatment according to a guideline but making the person feel ill from all the ‘excellence’ we’ve delivered for the liver or heart.
There are times and circumstances where it is totally appropriate to suffer temporarily to achieve a bigger overall goal - having surgery to remove an inflamed appendix is painful, but the ultimate goal of maintaining life is important to the person.
Specialists focus on optimizing the organ system. Primary care takes the recommendations of the specialist and helps the person balance the recommendations in light of their overall goals.
I’ve had patients come to me saying “When I combine the diets from my heart doctor, my liver doctor and my endocrinologist I have nothing left to eat!” or “The treatment plan from the specialist is so noxious that I give up and take nothing at all.”
My job is to help them find balance.
