In response to Dr Nicholas Pimlott’s Commentary (“Who has time for family medicine?”1), incorporating more primary care practitioners when forming clinical practice guidelines would be a good start to improving guidelines. Involving a substantial number of patients in the process would be an even better finish. The patient remains the excluded member of the oft-heralded “health care team,” yet no one can deny that patients will need to take directive roles for their own chronic and preventive health care issues. They are already doing it, reading food labels and personalizing their exercise programs. Clinical practice guidelines need to be written with the goal of patient understanding, not the goal of physician interpretation.
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