General practice

Dickinson, James A

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2002.tb04250.x

Topics

General practitioners remain the linchpin of frontline medical care, and continue to aim for comprehensive, coordinated care for their patients. Recent advances in general practice have focused on equipping GPs to better provide such care. Both international and within-country comparisons show that healthcare systems based on primary care produce better overall health outcomes than systems based on specialists.1

Department of Community and Family Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 4/F, School of Public Health, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong, SAR, China.

Correspondence: jad@cuhk.edu.hk

1. Starfield B. Primary care: balancing health needs, services, and technology. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998: 12-16.
2. Beaglehole R. Global cardiovascular disease prevention: time to get serious. Lancet 2001; 358: 661-663.
3. Bull FC, Jamrozik K. Advice on exercise from a family physician can help sedentary patients to become active. Am J Prev Med 1998; 15: 85-94.
4. Jackson R. Absolute 5-year risk of a cardiovascular event (newly diagnosed angina, MI, CHD, death, stroke or TIA). Available at: http://www.cebm.net/prognosis.asp (accessed June 2005).
5. Gonzales R, Bartlett JG, Besser RE, et al. Principles of appropriate antibiotic use for treatment of acute respiratory tract infections in adults: background, specific aims, and methods. Ann Intern Med 2001; 134: 479-486. Available at: http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/abstract/134/6/479 (accessed June 2005).

Online responses are no longer available. Please refer to our instructions for authors page for more information.