Primary Care

Primary care is the initial point of contact between a patient and the healthcare system that provides individuals with access to the information and resources they need for optimal health outcomes.

What is Primary Care?

Primary care is the initial point of contact between a patient and the healthcare system that provides individuals with access to the information and resources they need for optimal health outcomes.

Effective Communication in Primary Care Teams

Multidisciplinary Primary Care Teams

Benefits of Primary Care Intervention

Choosing a Primary Care Provider

Benefits of Primary Health Care

Strategies to Improve Shortage of Primary Health Care

Latest Primary Care News and Research

Sinus surgery proves more effective than antibiotics for chronic rhinosinusitis

Sinus surgery is more effective than antibiotics at treating chronic rhinosinusitis, according to a major clinical trial led by University College London (UCL) along with academics at the University of East Anglia and Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust.

28 Aug 2025

Gut disorders forecast Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s risk years before diagnosis

Study maps clinical, genetic, and proteomic links between gut-brain disorders and neurodegeneration, showing how diabetes, vitamin D deficiency, and bowel disorders forecast Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s years in advance. Multimodal models in biobanks highlight early detection and personalized prevention opportunities.

28 Aug 2025

New guidelines improve care for respiratory infections in leukemia patients

People with leukemia have a weakened immune system due to the disease itself and treatment, which leads to an increased susceptibility to infections.

28 Aug 2025

Certain dietary fats found to trigger hard-to-treat asthma in children

Researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) found that certain lipids, or fats, in obesity-causing foods also cause asthma-like lung inflammation.

27 Aug 2025

New guidelines highlight importance of vaccination for heart patients

The American College of Cardiology has issued Concise Clinical Guidance (CCG) recommending vaccines to protect adults with heart disease against respiratory illness, including influenza, COVID-19 and RSV, and other diseases where vaccination is shown to offer cardiovascular protective benefits.

26 Aug 2025

People with schizophrenia are more likely to develop COPD

People with schizophrenia are more likely to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), suggesting a possible syndemic relationship between the two diseases, in addition to people not seeking appropriate medical care.

26 Aug 2025

New guideline offers effective options to help Canadians quit smoking

Tobacco smoking is the number one cause of preventable disease and death in Canada; it is highly addictive and hard to stop.

25 Aug 2025

How generative AI scribes are reducing physician burnout

A new study led by Mass General Brigham researchers reveals that ambient documentation technologies – generative artificial intelligence scribes that record patient visits and draft clinical notes for physician review before incorporating them into electronic health records – led to significant reductions in physician burnout.

22 Aug 2025

Mitochondrial dysfunction in the blood-brain barrier may contribute to neuropsychiatric disease in 22qDS

In a new study led by the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine (Penn Vet) and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), researchers found that mitochondrial dysfunction in the blood-brain barrier (BBB) may lead to neuropsychiatric disease in some patients with 22qDS.

20 Aug 2025

Rethinking chronic disease management in older adults

Effectively managing chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension can greatly improve quality of life, reduce complications and extend longevity for older adults.

20 Aug 2025

Texas Children’s successfully treats AADC deficiency using FDA-approved gene therapy

Texas Children's is pleased to announce that a three-year-old girl has been successfully treated with the first-ever FDA-approved gene therapy treatment for AADC deficiency.

19 Aug 2025

Dual vector gene therapy for GM2 gangliosidosis shows encouraging results in clinical trial

Patients in a Phase I/II clinical trial conducted by UMass Chan Medical School of a dual vector gene therapy for GM2 gangliosidosis, which includes Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff diseases, exhibited a biochemical correction of the disease with minimal adverse reactions.

18 Aug 2025

Missing messenger RNA fragments unlock new immunotherapy targets in pediatric brain tumors

A new study, led by researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), identified tiny pieces of messenger RNA that are missing in pediatric high-grade glioma tumors but not in normal brain tissues.

18 Aug 2025

Better control of childhood EoE-associated inflammation reduces esophagus stiffening and complications

Researchers from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Children's Hospital Colorado have found that better control of chronic eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE)-associated inflammation during childhood leads to less stiffening of the esophagus, resulting in fewer disease complications.

18 Aug 2025

Portable device enables at-home monitoring of Parkinson’s disease symptoms

The number of people living with Parkinson's disease globally has doubled in the past 25 years.

17 Aug 2025

AI voice test could help spot dangerous throat lesions before symptoms appear

Researchers at Oregon Health and Science University found that variability in the harmonic-to-noise ratio (HNR) of speech could help distinguish benign from malignant vocal fold lesions, offering a potential early detection biomarker. The exploratory study used AI to analyze acoustic features from the Bridge2AI-Voice dataset and found differences most pronounced in male participants.

14 Aug 2025

Growing use of AI scribes among New Zealand GPs raises ethical and legal questions

Many New Zealand GPs have taken up the use of AI scribes to transcribe patient notes during consultations despite ongoing challenges with their legal and ethical oversight, data security, patient consent, and the impact on the doctor-patient relationship, a study led by the University of Otago, Wellington – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, Pōneke has found.

14 Aug 2025

New 2025 guidelines focus on early intervention and lifestyle to manage high blood pressure

Preventing and managing high blood pressure with healthy lifestyle behaviors, such as following a heart-healthy diet including reducing salt intake, staying physically active, maintaining a healthy weight and managing stress—combined with early treatment with medication to lower blood pressure if necessary—are recommended to reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke, heart failure, kidney disease, cognitive decline and dementia, according to a new clinical guideline published today in the American Heart Association's peer-reviewed journals Circulation and Hypertension, and in JACC, the flagship journal of the American College of Cardiology.

14 Aug 2025

Primary care could help meet growing needs of cancer survivors

Thanks to new advances in cancer care, more and more people are surviving cancer, with a projected total of 22.5 million survivors by 2032.

13 Aug 2025

Doctor’s white coats remain a symbol of trust despite growing acceptance of scrubs

Patients are still more likely to trust doctors and consider them more professional when they wear white coats, although women doctors in this attire are often misidentified as nurses or medical assistants, finds a review of the available research on the topic, published in the open access journal BMJ Open.

13 Aug 2025