: Marcus Welby for the 21st Century

Topic: Marcus Welby for the 21st Century Order Description Primary care physician is like the “captain of the ship” who directs our health care system. Despite being fondly remembered as an “ideal” example of how a primary care physician (PCP) should operate, the Marcus Welby Medicine (MWM) model was subject to inefficiencies such as moral hazard, demand inducement and practice variations2 . Today, technology has changed everything. Individuals now buy drugs on the Internet and Tweet about their latest trip to the dentist. They can book appointment through zocdoc.com. They can rate their doctors on healthgrades.com. They can research their own illnesses (after being diagnosed) through websites such asWebMD.com and MDAdvice.com. (Yet these sites are not always a good source for determining what caused their illnesses or accurately providing a selfdiagnosis. Sometimes these sites even create frustration and unnecessary worrying.) Moreover, the recent development of Health Information Technology (HIT) such as Electronic Medical Records (EMR) could help prevent medical errors and exchange patient information among healthcare providers. How might you harness modern technology to transform the role of the primary care physician, creating a “Marcus Welby for the 21st Century?”