General practice and the new science emerging from the theories of 'chaos' and complexity

This paper outlines the general practice world view and introduces the main features of the theories of 'chaos' and complexity. From this, analogies are drawn between general practice and the theories, which suggest a different way of understanding general practice and point to future developments in general practice research. A conceptual and practical link between qualitative and quantitative methods of research is suggested. Methods of combining data about social context with data about individuals and about biomedical factors are discussed. The paper emphasizes the importance of data collected over time and of considering the multiplicative interactions between variables. Finally, the paper suggests that to develop this type of research, general practice many need to reassess systems of categorizing and recording appropriate data.