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Primary care and specialty care: a role reversal?
Author(s) -
Starfield Barbara
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
medical education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.776
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1365-2923
pISSN - 0308-0110
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2923.2003.01601.x
Subject(s) - specialty , primary care , citation , library science , medicine , family medicine , psychology , gerontology , computer science
Knowledge about primary care has been accumulating at a rapid rate. We know what primary care is and what it does; in contrast, we know almost nothing about specialty care, except for that part of it that takes place in the inpatient setting, and even that knowledge is spotty and unrepresentative. Professor Pereira Gray has posed a remarkable hypothesis: that there is role reversal between specialists and primary care physicians in that primary care physicians can now claim responsibility for a considerable proportion of lifesaving care, whereas specialists are increasingly assuming the role of ‘remediators’. There is much to ponder in his short exposition. His hypothesis is provocative. Can it be supported with evidence? 1