In short, primary care encompasses a wide array of health concerns in all types of patients. If your stomach has been hurting, you may visit your primary care physician to discuss the symptoms. If your child is sprouting a strange rash, you may go see your primary care physician to have it examined.

Primary care physicians are the connections patients need to the increasingly fragmented world of health care. They’re the ones that patients get to develop long-term relationships with. They’re the ones patients come to rely on, even when being circulated to various specialists. Primary care physicians are often the first point of entry into the convoluted health care system.

Another distinguishing factor of this specialty is that the health concerns primary care physicians address are not limited by origin, whether biological, behavioral, or social. They do not limit their care to health concerns of a specific organ system or diagnosis, either. Because of this, primary care physicians see almost everything under the sun.