A unique, and one of the best, takes of the primary care crisis I’ve read:
What is happening to PCPs is what happens to many experts whose jobs are fundamentally based on knowledge and/or technology. That is, as knowledge and technology advance, some (and perhaps a lot) of what the experts do can be sufficiently simplified and “democratized” that less well-trained individuals become enabled (or believe they are enabled, which amounts to the same thing) to do it themselves.This is what the market is telling PCPs has happened to them.
It is proposed that primary care start to take on specialists’ domains, just as mid-levels have encroached on primary care.
That’s great advice.
Some of this is already happening. Cosmetic laser therapy. Botox injections. Trigger point injections. Non-invasive nerve conduction studies. All available in a growing number of primary care practices.
Make yourself indispensable and maximize your value. Soon, it will be the only way a generalist physician will survive.
