A battlefield of medicine

Did anybody ever go into general practice for a quiet life? If they did, they must be disappointed. General practice is one of the battlefields of medicine. The armies of patients have always been there, but armies of researchers, evidence based medicine enthusiasts, educators, sociologists, politicians, and policy wonks have now crossed and recrossed the territory. They leave flattened earth in this issue of the journal.

Antibiotics have been one of the blessings of medicine and general practice. But research on infectious disease in general practice is showing a much more complicated picture. …