In response to the questioning of Health Policy and Management (HPAM) by colleagues on the role of rank and file family physicians in the same journal, the author, a family physician in Belgium, is trying to highlight the complexity and depth of the work of his colleagues and their contribution to the understanding of the organization and economy of healthcare. It addresses, in particular, the management of health elements throughout the ongoing relationship of the family doctor with his/her patients. It shows how the three dimensions of prevention, clearly included in the daily work, are complemented with the fourth dimension, quaternary prevention or prevention of medicine itself, whose understanding could help to control the economic and human costs of healthcare.

Towards patient-doctor relationship based careClinical prevention, under the influence of public health, has been organised in a chronologicalmanner since the middle of the 20th century. A paradigm shift from a chronological to a constructivist relationship-based preventive pattern of care1 offers new insights into the practice of doctors. This paradigm shift brings to light the concept of quaternary prevention, a critical look at medical activities with an emphasis on the need not to harm. Quaternary prevention addresses the fundamental question of what constitutes too much or too little medicine. It is the fourth form of disease prevention, but also the fourth frame of action for family doctors (Figure 1). The shift from time-based prevention towards a relationship-based organisation offers new perspectives into physicians’ work. The physicians observe themselves and question the ethical limits of their activities. In this sense, quaternary prevention is aimed more at the doctor than the patient. Moreover, the four definitions of prevention, published in the Wonca Dictionary of Family Medicine,2 offer a structured way to discuss the activities of family doctors, including ethical considerations on the patient-doctor encounter. Quaternary prevention, also known as P4, is a new term for an old concept: first, do not harm. This concept enforces disciplines and attitudes such as evidence-based medicine, quality assurance, defensive medicine, avoiding abusive nosographic diagnoses and ethical issues including those linked to overinformation, and overmedicalisation.

Fifty-five patients who suffered from COVID-19, who were still very ill after several months, with extreme fatigue, effort exhaustion, brain fog, anomia, memory disorder, anosmia, dysgeusia, and other multi-systemic health problems have been followed in a family practice setting between May 2021 and July 2022. Data extracted from the medical records of the 55 patients (40 women), mean age 42.4 (12 to 79 years), and a qualitative study of 6 of them using a semi-open-ended questionnaire allowed to highlight the clinical picture described by WHO as post-acute COVID-19 syndrome (PACS) also known as long COVID. We used brain single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT-CT) in thirty-two patients with a high severity index and a highly impaired functional status, demonstrating vascular encephalopathy in twenty nine patients and supporting the hypothesis of a persistent cerebral vascular flow disorder in post COVID-19 condition. The patients will benefit from the consortium COVID Human Genetic Effort (covidhge.com) to explore the genetic and immunological basis of their problem, as 23/55 cases don’t have immunological certainty of a COVID-19 infection. There is no known verified treatment. Analyzing the data from the first 52 patients, three categories of patients emerged over time: 16 patients made a full recovery after 6–8 months, 15 patients were able to return to life and work after 12–18 months with some sequelae, both groups being considered cured. In the third group, 21 patients are still very ill and unable to resume their work and life after 18 months. The biopsychosocial consequences on patients’ lives are severe and family doctors are left out in the cold. It is necessary to test the reproducibility of this description, conducted on a small number of patients. Nevertheless, identifying, monitoring and supporting these patients is a necessity in family medicine.

O conceito de Prevenção Quaternária, um questionamento sobre a base da ação médica, nasceu na articulação da relação médico-paciente. Refere-se a toda a atividade médica, sendo uma importante ferramenta para a medicina de família. É uma interrogação ética sobre os excessos da demasiada e demasiadamente pouca medicina e fornece algumas respostas.

This article presents an overview of different techniques and skills necessary for teaching and learning quaternary prevention (P4). It adopts the Expertise Model that defines the competences required in P4 for each level: novice, competent, proficient, and expert. This framework should be used as a step-wise roadmap for teachers in order to achieve high levels of performance. This proposal is complemented by a list of methods applied in teaching and assessment of learners’ performance and competence. By covering a range of learning and teaching issues, those who aim to teach quaternary prevention can explore the proposed framework. Quaternary prevention is a research and teaching fertile medical field that entails the integration of different areas such as health service organisation, epidemiology, communication skills, and andragogy either at the macro or the micro levels of health related activities.