Care Philosophy
I became a Family Physician because I’m an unapologetic generalist. Our health is affected by an astounding breadth of factors, and effective healthcare takes the range of these factors into account. That is interesting and rewarding. From 1980 through 1982 I was a research fellow in Family Medicine, and for two decades thereafter I was a mental health services researcher, studying how mental disorders and unexplained physical symptoms presented and were managed in primary care. Even after becoming a chair in 1996 I remained interested in the incorporation of mental healthcare into the primary care setting, and with the resurgence of interest in transforming primary care into the Patient-Centered Medical Home, I have retained my conviction that good primary care always includes mental and behavioral factors, and requires health behavior change. So I am especially interested in making sure that the PCMH really is for the whole person—mind, behavior, family, as well as body.