Primary care in the next decade

The author gives his perspective on the challenges that medical practices will face over the next ten years. Systems of health-care delivery within the practice setting will have to accommodate to a more complex medical agenda, a trend to earlier diagnosis and intervention, and the need to preserve the patient-doctor relationship. In facing these challenges, physicians will need to accept leadership responsibility and be prepared to engage in a more organized, collective approach if we hope to come up with pragmatic solutions that truly work in practice. The guiding principle in all of these changes must be the actual improvement of patient care.