Family Medicine

The backbone of primary care — physicians who know their patients as people

Stories tagged Family Medicine

The Pharmacist Who Saved a Town
Rural MedicineFamily Medicine

Editorial composite

The Pharmacist Who Saved a Town

He watched his community being destroyed by addiction. He couldn't stop the prescriptions — he was just a pharmacist. But he could do something the DEA and the CDC couldn't: he could talk to people.

7 min read
The Mountain Clinic
Global MedicineFamily Medicine

Editorial composite

The Mountain Clinic

The clinic had no electricity, no running water, and a pharmacy stocked entirely by donations. But when a woman I had treated five years earlier walked for three days to bring me a handmade scarf and tell me she was alive, I understood what medicine is actually for.

7 min read
The Doctor Who Couldn't Say No
BurnoutFamily Medicine

Editorial composite

The Doctor Who Couldn't Say No

I gave patients my cell phone number. I answered emails at midnight. I came in on weekends. I thought I was being a good doctor. I was actually dying.

7 min read
The Village Doctor
Rural MedicineFamily Medicine

Editorial composite

The Village Doctor

In a town without a hospital, a clinic with one exam room, and a pharmacy that closes at 6 PM, being a doctor means something different. It means delivering three generations of the same family. It means making house calls in a snowstorm. And it means being told, on the day you almost quit, that you saved a life you didn't know you'd saved.

7 min read
The Dream That Saved a Life
Premonitions And DreamsFamily Medicine

Editorial composite

The Dream That Saved a Life

For three consecutive nights, I dreamed of a patient I hadn't seen in six months. Each time, the dream was identical: she was standing in my office, holding her abdomen, asking me to look again. On the fourth morning, I called her.

7 min read
Physicians' Untold Stories book cover

Read the Stories That Changed Everything

Public descriptions say the book draws on more than 200 physician interviews and presents 26 selected accounts.

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Physicians' Untold Stories by Dr. Scott Kolbaba

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The Stories Medicine Never Told You

Public descriptions say the book draws on more than 200 physician interviews and presents 26 selected accounts involving end-of-life experiences, unexpected recoveries, faith, and other events the narrators found difficult to explain.

By Dr. Scott J. Kolbaba, MD. Check the retailer for current formats, pricing, and reader ratings.