ISSN: 2639-2038
Authors: Turabian JL*
For most illnesses the general practitioner (GP) is the first point of contact in the health care system. He/she looks after a population whose age and sex composition is known. The continuity of care in general medicine -the relationship that is established in the long term between the GP and the patients in his/her office- has positive effects from the epidemiological point of view. The continuity of care allows to the doctor to see repeated patterns of events and trends or regularities through generations, family functioning and its relationship to events, family structure, coalitions between members, the family rules, myths, rituals, etc. But there is a gap for GPs on continuity of care in regard to its epidemiological implications that are not even taken into consideration. This article, second part of two, pretend to reflect, on some of the fundamental epidemiological elements that are provided by continuity of care in general medicine, and its practical applications: 4. Community diagnosis: a continuous process, along with planning, decision making and implementation of intervention programs; 5. Knowledge of the natural history of the disease: general medicine presents a unique opportunity to study the natural history of disease and the GP work includes the natural history of disease and the human life cycle, and so, no one is better able to observe, from the family history, the ultimate consequences of any health problem; 6. Obtaining epidemiological hypotheses: continuity of care allows the identification of epidemiological hypotheses to be tested later; 7. The possibilities of epidemiological studies from the data of continuity of care: case studies, multiple case studies, longitudinal studies (prospective and retrospective), cohort studies, seasonal variations, and qualitative studies. The GPs can make a significant contribution to the epidemiological research of diseases on the basis of patients seen in routine practice over time.
Keywords: Continuity of care; Epidemiology; Community medicine; General practitioner; Disease; Diagnosis
