Hooked on Primary Care with Bright Zhou, MD, MS

One of the greatest milestones in a family physician’s career is the first time a patient asks you to be their primary care physician.

Perhaps it was a funny joke, a reassuring statement, or a shared language — somehow in 10 to 20 minutes, the patient is convinced that you are the best fit to oversee their health, to guide them through future diagnoses, to check in on their family, friends and aspirations. After a traumatic time in the emergency room or hospital, you are the first person they see afterward to answer any lingering questions and to plan for the future. When deciding to expand a family, your patient decides they want you to supervise both their pregnancy and their child’s eventual health care. Entrusted with this responsibility, how could you not want to expand your skill set to better serve this patient?

I am proud to be a family physician because this is the locus of our practice. Family physicians are champions of gender affirming, reproductive, mental health and substance use care — all fields developed in response to the evolving needs of our community. We fully understand the complexities of our health care system, having trained in a broad medical ecosystem encompassing clinics, hospitals, operating rooms, sports arenas, schools and community centers. Our practice naturally extends to patient advocacy as we work to reduce patient barriers in each of these spaces, and our community is built by empathetic, compassionate colleagues who tend to one another’s journeys.

This collective vision for healthy communities is what convinced me to pursue a career in family medicine. Others who are interested in exploring this comprehensive path should start with the quintessential American Academy of Family Physicians’ National Conference, which takes place each summer, or by reaching out to family physicians within their community. As future generations of physicians reflect on their motivations within medicine, I encourage them to consider family medicine and primary care as a vibrant, longitudinal and reactionary career.

Bright Zhou, MD, MS
Resident Chair of National Conference, American Academy of Family Physicians