At the 25th World Organisation of Family Doctors (WONCA) World Conference 2025, held recently in Lisbon, Portugal, a packed audience awaited Cindy Lam, MD, emeritus professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care at the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Before hundreds of healthcare professionals, she delivered a presentation that moved the audience, comparing the art of medicine with family practice. With more than 40 years of clinical experience, the researcher spoke about balancing scientific rigor with the compassion inherent in patient care.

“Life is short, but art is long,” a classical Greek saying, reminds us that while technology can assist in medicine, it cannot replace human healing. While artificial intelligence can aid diagnosis or suggest treatments, it cannot substitute for the physician’s empathy and intuition, according to Lam.

Much like Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, masterpieces are instantly recognizable, yet the full scope of art — or medical practice — is often opaque to nonexperts. “Not everyone practices primary care in the same way. That is what makes our work both challenging and deeply rewarding,” she added.

“Family medicine is like an art,” Lam continued. “The beauty of primary care lies in its adaptability to an ever-changing medical landscape,” she emphasized, while noting the complexity of daily work for family physicians worldwide.

Person-Centered Care

For Lam, care must be person-centered, going beyond disease to treat the whole individual. This approach delivers comprehensive, continuous, and coordinated care. She stressed implementing this philosophy through measurable professional behaviors: demonstrating empathy; exploring the personal meaning of illness; integrating psychosocial and behavioral needs; and ensuring care is acceptable, feasible, and aligned with patient preferences.

“Continuity is the hallmark of family medicine,” she said. By nurturing long-term doctor-patient relationships, family physicians can improve diagnostic accuracy, treatment adherence, patient satisfaction, and cost-effectiveness while reducing hospitalizations. From preventive health promotion to chronic disease management and coordination of complex care, family physicians address patients’ needs throughout their lives.

Beauty of the Profession

Despite multiple challenges facing family medicine today — professional burnout, healthcare workforce shortages, and disruptions from digitalization — Lam emphasized the beauty of the profession.

“We must show the next generation how truly important and beautiful primary care is,” she said, even though family medicine is sometimes undervalued by other specialties. She noted that family medicine continues to evolve across continents and cultures and is still striving for universal recognition as a distinct specialty.

Indeed, she argued, the evolving role of primary care drives human and sustainable health, and it is essential to resist oversimplified training models, uphold professional standards in family medicine, and advocate for research addressing real-world primary care challenges.

Human contact in primary care may be brief in a single consultation, but the seeds it plants can foster long-term well-being.

“The relational dimension of primary care is a long and constantly evolving art, and the science of family medicine ensures that this art continues to develop, innovate, and leave a lasting impact on patients’ lives,” she concluded.

This article was translated from MediQuality.