Why is Family Medicine Different?

An understanding of the role and function of Family Medicine in the healthcare system can provide important insights for Enterprise Architecture. It is often stated that the thought process utilized by Family Medicine physicians is different from that of specialty physicians, but heretofore there has been little or no analysis of what that difference is. This article examines that difference from the perspective of the complex adaptive system that is healthcare today, and shows how it is that Family Medicine physicians perform the vital function of decreasing the entropy or disorder in the patient care system via decision loops, as opposed to the decision trees of linear or classical logic. The generalist function of Family Medicine physicians results in the integration and coordination of the various specialty functions in healthcare