Family and General Practice

Family Practice is comprehensive medical care with particular emphasis on the family unit, in which the physician's continuing responsibility for health care is not limited by the patient's age or sex, nor by a particular organ system or disease process. After medical school, a family practice physician completes a two- to four-year residency program, which includes training in pediatrics, internal medicine, obstetrics, gynecology, psychiatry and community medicine.

Family practice physicians treat patients of all ages, from the newborn period to the elderly population. A primary objective is to help patients stay healthy by stressing health education, maintenance and the prevention of illness.