Family Medicine (FM) or Family Healthcare, formerly known as Family Practice (FP), is a medical speciality devoted to comprehensive healthcare for people of all ages. The specialist is called a family physician, family doctor, or formerly known as a family practitioner. It is a division of primary care that provides continuing and comprehensive health care for individuals and families of all ages, genders, diseases, and specialities.

Family Medicine is based on the knowledge of the patient in the context of the family and the community, emphasizing disease prevention and health promotion. According to the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA), family medicine aims to provide personal, comprehensive, and continuing care for the individual in the context of the family and the community. The issues of values underlying this practice are usually known as primary care ethics.

As a leading multispecialty hospital chain in India, we know how family dynamics affect each member's health and overall well-being. We address children, adolescents, adults, and seniors' physical, emotional, mental, and social needs. We also care for expectant mothers and babies and nurture comprehensive family healthcare.

Why Is Family Medicine Important?

Family medicine is essential to providing holistic healthcare to you and your family. It plays a major role in improving birth rates, accelerating immunization campaigns, managing epidemics, lowering healthcare costs and improving the overall quality of health for everyone in the community.

Family physicians are experts in providing long-term care, emergency care, and performing routine procedures. Some of the other reasons why family medicine is important are:

Personalized care: Doctors in the family medicine speciality have a long-standing relationship with you and your family. This allows them to understand your medical history, family medical history, lifestyle, and individual preferences well. This information helps them diagnose more accurately and offer personalized care.
Preventive care: Family medicine is often the first line of defence against seasonal illness, viral infections and other recurring health issues. Family physicians offer preventive care by recommending blood tests, screenings, vaccinations and lifestyle changes. This approach results in the prevention of seasonal illness and early detection of other serious medical complications.
Coordinating care with other departments: Given the deep understanding of your medical history, family medicine doctors often coordinate the diagnosis and treatment with specialized departments at the hospital. They act as a central point of care and collaborate with specialists, therapists, dieticians and others for comprehensive treatment. Family physicians usually diagnose a medical condition through regular screenings or blood tests during annual checkups. They refer you to a specialist for further treatment based on their preliminary diagnosis. Their experience helps the specialists interpret test results, identify trends and diagnose the condition more accurately.
Wide range of expertise: Family physicians manage various medical services. From treating newborns to seniors, they provide counselling and diagnosis for acute diseases, chronic conditions, mental health issues and lifestyle concerns. They can provide preliminary diagnoses for the following disciplines – emergency care, geriatric care, neurology, paediatrics, urology, ophthalmology, orthopaedics and more.

Common Illness Treated

If you have to visit the best family healthcare hospital in India, you need to be aware of the diseases treated by primary medical care. Some of them are as follows-

Bronchitis

Bronchitis is a common lung disease that causes inflammation in the lungs' main air passages. Some common symptoms include severe coughing, which can also be mistaken for a common cold. People who have suffered from bronchitis for a long period are known as chronic bronchitis.

Fluctuating blood pressure

This is a common illness that a family medicine hospital in India treats. If not treated as soon as possible, high and low blood pressure can lead to severe issues like heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, and other crucial conditions. This is why family medicine, and primary doctors check their patient's blood pressure whenever they visit for an appointment.

Diabetes

Two major types of diabetes affect the general population: Type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Family medicine helps make a proper diagnosis of diabetes by assisting patients in performing a blood glucose test.

High cholesterol

If not kept in check, high cholesterol can lead to many dangerous heart conditions. High cholesterol levels can cause heart attack and stroke if not attended. Cholesterol levels can shoot up when your diet, weight, and physical activity are not kept in check.

Asthma

Asthma is a chronic lung disease that usually starts in childhood. It causes shortness of breath, wheezing, and coughing. Various factors, including genetic factors, can induce asthma.

Headaches and Migraines

Everyone is bound to experience a minor headache now and then. But when those headaches go from mild to intense and last for a long time, it can get worrisome and may signal a problem. Strong and painful headaches that can render a person helpless are usually classified as migraines.

Respiratory infections

If a respiratory or sinus infection is not treated immediately, it can lead to other health problems. Sinus infections can start by being uncomfortable and then build up and worsen over time.

Here are some of the other illnesses that primary care physicians treat-

Scrapes and cuts
Broken bones
Sprains
Inflammation in the arms and legs
Sexually transmitted diseases
Menopause
Minor burns
Cancer screenings
Nosebleeds
Fever and cold
Allergies
Skin conditions
Fungal infections

If you suffer from any of the illnesses mentioned above, you should visit a family medicine hospital.

Diagnosis in Family Medicine

In every family medicine hospital, diagnosis is an important implication for patient care, research, and implementation of policies. The diagnostic process in primary medicine is as follows-

When you experience a health issue or recognise a symptom, you visit a primary care doctor or a family physician for consultation and diagnosis. The primary care doctor starts a process that includes information gathering, integration, and interpretation. This will help them come to a working diagnosis.

Suppose the symptoms are severe and can’t be treated with basic medication. The family doctor will perform a clinical history interview and order some tests, which will gather information and help them understand the patient’s health problem.

You must also communicate with your doctor about your current symptoms. This will help them make the proper diagnosis.

Treatment Benefits of Primary Care Physicians-

Primary care includes health promotion, disease prevention, health maintenance, counselling, diagnosis, patient education, and treatment of acute and chronic illnesses.

They follow your life cycle:

Since family doctors treat a wide range of conditions, they can be primary care doctors at any point in your life. This is beneficial to you and your family because, in the long term, it means that you are building a lasting relationship with a family doctor.

They know your personal and family history:

When a doctor treats you for a long time, it means they have an accurate history of your medical records. When they treat various generations of the family, they get precise information about the family's health history.

Family medicine specialists treat more than you think:

Family doctors do more than your annual checkup; they help you manage chronic conditions like diabetes and arthritis and treat acute situations like sinus infections. They can also perform minor surgical procedures like freezing warts or draining abscesses.

Family Medicine FAQs