Having and being a personal physician: vision of the Pisacano scholars

Having a strong relationship with a personal physician can improve patient health outcomes. Yet achieving and sustaining this type of patient-physician relationship is often not possible in the current American health care system. Pisacano scholars and alumni, a group of young physician leaders supported by the American Board of Family Medicine, gathered for a 2-day symposium in June 2010 to explore the meaning of personal doctoring and its importance to our work as family physicians. Using the techniques of appreciative inquiry, the group discussed three questions: What is it like to have a personal physician? What is it like to be a personal physician? and, What are some feasible next steps toward making this possible? Symposium participants concluded that achieving the ideal patient-physician relationship for all patients and physicians would involve extensive alterations to the current health care system beyond what is outlined in the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. However, in the context of current health reform efforts, individual physicians, researchers, and policy makers must not lose sight of the importance of the patient-physician relationship and should continue to take concrete steps on an individual and system level to move us closer to this ideal.