If medical care is truly to be driven back to primary care we need to arm the waiters of medicine with purposefully designed tools and training to resolve ambiguity, aid diagnosis and inform therapy in the exam room.
Many of the schools under development are making a bigger push to educate future primary care physicians, which will be in greater need to improve the quality of medical care and lower costs by keeping patients out of the more expensive hospital setting.
The Family Caregiver Alliance, a San Francisco nonprofit group, suggests addressing the following issues: the latest doctor's report, fears about illness and caregiving, daily caregiving needs, financial concerns, the person who will make decisions about finances or medical treatment, what support role each family member should play and what support the primary caregiver might need.