The Role of Family and Community in Integrative Preventive Medicine

The role of family and community in integrative preventive medicine (IPM) is to leverage primary care as the chief means for disseminating and implementing a new integrative model of prevention. Thus IPM provides a shift from acute to chronic disease treatment and prevention with the goal of morbidity compression to extend the period of disease-free high-quality life. This shift results in a new focus for family and community medicine. Integrative preventive medicine realigns primary care with primary prevention, from reactive “sick” acute care to proactive preventive “health” care. It recreates “routine” physical exams as opportunities for primary prevention and patient health education. It empowers physicians to go beyond simply screening for secondary prevention and waiting for a disease to be diagnosed in favor of proactively engaging patients with an evidence-based lifestyle regimen to prevent the onset of disease and maintain optimal health for as long as possible.