International Journal of Health Policy and Management

International Journal of Health Policy and Management

The Difficult Choice of “Not Doing”; Comment on “Quaternary Prevention, an Answer of Family Doctors to Overmedicalization”

Document Type : Commentary

Author
Centro Studi E Ricerche Medicina Generale, Dueville, Italy
Abstract
The article of Marc Jamoulle shows the importance of the contribution of general practitioners (GPs) in improving the quality and the efficiency of the health systems. Starting from the concept of quaternary prevention for reducing excessive costs in the preventive procedures, he suggests a change of paradigm in every daily activity of the GP in order to have a stronger ethical approach to the patient. This means spending more time in the consultation in order to better understand her/his real needs and share a common decision for minimizing the costs and solving the patient’s problems in agreement with her/his believes and values.
Keywords
Subjects

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  • Received Date 26 April 2015
  • Revised Date 28 May 2015
  • Accepted Date 28 May 2015
  • First Published Date 01 August 2015
  • Published Date 01 August 2015