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The typical office-based physician has contact with 713 patients each year and will provide care for at least 1000 different people over the next 10 years, according to the Bureau of Health Professions. During that time, if the patients are representative of the U.S. population, 25 will die from coronary heart disease, 20 from cancer, 6 from stroke, and 4 from injuries. Fully 29 of these 55 deaths will be premature, occurring before the age of 75, with nearly 16 occurring before the age of 65.1 With appropriate preventive actions initiated by physicians, at least 10 and as many as . . .
Louis W. Sullivan (1990) studied this question.