The Role of the Primary Physician in the Health-Care Industry

Mutual confidence between physician and patient is a large element in the effectiveness and the economy of health care. That confidence is now widely imperiled. Its peril has arisen with the growth of medical technology and its attendant costs. The problem has been magnified by the proliferation of medical specialties. Responsibility for the patient's care is often divided and the involvement of many physicians is only episodic. I submit that a further major cause of this erosion of confidence is that patients have come to regard doctors more as technicians than as counselors and that this change in attitude is . . .