[General Practice: continuously developing].

Area of Science:

• General Practice
• Primary Care Medicine
• Healthcare Policy

Background:

• Significant advancements in general practice over the last decade include diagnostics, competence differentiation, and inter-professional collaboration.
• Areas with less progress include e-health adoption, integrated multimorbidity management guidelines, and persistent regulatory burdens for general practitioners (GPs).

Purpose of the Study:

• To review developments in general practice over the past decade.
• To identify areas of progress and stagnation in primary care.
• To project future trends and core values for general practitioners.

Main Methods:

• This is a review and projection based on current trends and established core values of general practice.
• Analysis of developments in diagnostics, inter-professional cooperation, task delegation, and patient information.
• Assessment of challenges such as e-health integration, multimorbidity policy, and regulatory pressures.

Main Results:

• Progress noted in diagnostics, primary and secondary care cooperation, task delegation, and patient information.
• Limited progress in e-health implementation and integrated care policies for patients with multiple chronic conditions.
• General practitioners continue to face excessive regulation and standardization.

Conclusions:

• General practice will continue to uphold core values: person-oriented, medical-generalist, continuous, and collaborative care.
• The guidance function of GPs will become more critical, with increased diagnostics and treatment at the primary-secondary care interface.
• Future chronic care will be patient-centered, with GPs maintaining key roles in palliative and emergency care.