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William Ross Gillanders, MD; Robert D. Gillette, MD
St Elizabeth Hospital Medical Center Youngstown, Ohio

JAMA. 1994;271(19):1482-1483.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—We share the concern of Franks et al¹ that research in primary care is grossly underfunded in relation to the need and agree that "strengthening the role of primary care practitioners in the health care system will facilitate access to more affordable, high-quality health care for all Americans." However, their assertion that "simply expanding primary care services... without restructuring the provision of primary care is likely to be prohibitively expensive" needs qualification. Family physicians already provide effective and cost-effective primary care and will do more of it once financial and other disincentives to recruiting more family practice residents disappear. Research is needed to describe more fully what they do and how it can be improved, but there is no need to discard decades of experience and reinvent the wheel. Costs are likely to escalate if anyone who wants to adopt the primary physician label is permitted . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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