Quality is Contextual
True quality in family medicine must reflect the real-life contexts of patients—medical, social, familial, emotional, and cultural. We must focus beyond checklists to purposeful, person-centered clinical care that adapts to circumstances of both patients and professionals.
Patient Safety is a Shared Responsibility
Safety in family medicine is built on relationships, continuity, and trust. Improving safety requires collaborative systems that support—not burden—clinicians, while empowering patients as partners in care decisions, including the option to refuse and question clinical advice. Responsibilities are also shared with systems factors.
Digitalisation Should Serve Human Care
Technology must be designed and implemented with and for primary care. Digital tools should enhance workflows, improve the efficiency of administration, aid clinical reasoning, enable access, support and strengthen—not replace—the doctor-patient connection.
AI with Ethical Grounding and Clinical Relevance
Artificial Intelligence in family medicine holds promise for diagnostics, triage, and decision support—but only if guided by ethical frameworks. It cannot replace the human clinician who adds clinical wisdom, and a deep understanding of the context and complexity in which care is delivered including recognition of patient autonomy.
Core Values as the Foundation
As we embrace innovation, we must ground every advance in the principles and core values of family medicine/general practice recognizing the value of person-centered, context-related, equitable and evidence-informed continuity of care.