Expanding Competency of Primary Health Care: Emotional and Bio-Social Meanings for General Practice Consultation—2nd Edition

A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 August 2026 | Viewed by 116

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Clinic of Social and Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion, Greece
Interests: primary health care; general practice; family medicine; cardio-metabolic morbidity; chronic diseases; healthcare services; primary care; health systems research; health determinants; systematic reviews; skills and competency
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Guest Editor
1. Department of Forensic Sciences and Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, 70013 Heraklion, Greece
2. Computational BioMedicine Lab, Institute of Computer Science, Foundation for Research & Technology-Hellas, 70013 Heraklion, Greece
Interests: polypharmacy; computational medicine; personalized/stratified medicine; medication and compliance; personalized health services; eHealth platforms and tools for pharmaceutical care; primary health care; medicine management; health informatics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Within research methodologies, it is always challenging to answer questions and dilemmas that we consider “easy” or that may be expected during our discussions or consultations as general practitioners. The primary care environment is a gate of “events” flow, acting as the interface between real-life data and bio-clinical information. There is a risk that one component may prevail over the other, affecting management output. Able doctors in primary care are those who can link emotional, social, and bio-clinical descriptors and offer personalized actions or advice.

In our personal lives, general practitioners “borrow” decision-making techniques from our field. To feed our hypothetical approach, we gained some authentic spot-check descriptions from primary care attenders within consultations in order to fit the needs of this short introduction. Attenders (A) were asked about their major expectations from their GP. We present their responses to cast more light on this topic:

A-1: “I seek bonding with my General Practitioner (GP). […] Whatever comes up I want to discuss it first with (her/him), ask about (her/his) opinion and then let (her/him) to refer me to another professional.”

A-2: “I want to feel that my GP cares for me, […] to be able to share things that make me feel sad and to trust (her/him).”

A-3: “I want my GP to show understanding and be compassionate, […] to be a good listener and approachable. I don’t want (her/him) to be just a ‘typical’ doctor.” 

Notably, attenders mentioned communicational, emotional, and social components. Bonding, caring, understanding, trust, and compassion were some of the key elements among the transcripts. People seek consultation from their “family” doctors for several reasons. They expect good clinical ability, but this is beyond the “typical” duty of a doctor. Not being sick does not equate to being healthy. General practitioners have the opportunity to understand what kind of emotional, social, and biological aspects influence people’s lives, affecting their health and wellness. This area of research requires expansion, as we believe that only evidence can place this pearl on the “crown” of general practice. We aim to support this effort to transform individuals’ perceptions during consultation into evidence for expanding competency in order to offer better outcomes, adherence to common decisions, and to avoid palindromic diagnoses, care dispersion, and patient isolation.

We seek original articles concerning positive or negative associations between descriptors such as empathy, connectedness, trust, social bonding, emotional wellness, daily life discomfort, or other psychosocial factors and bio-clinical variables from primary care environments. Articles on the interface of primary and secondary care from a general practice angle are a priority. Reviews approaching psychosocial issues with laboratory research linkages will be well received. Linking morbidity issues with emotional and social descriptors is of interest if the methodology and outcomes lead to robust conclusions. Articles that describe the roots of general practice consultation and reasons to change, or explain better outcomes, are also welcome.

Kind regards,

Dr. Emmanouil Symvoulakis
Dr. Marios Spanakis
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • primary health care
  • general practice
  • trust
  • empathy
  • consultation spirit
  • psychosocial determinants
  • bio-clinical determinants
  • emotional determinants
  • connectedness
  • social bonding
  • emotional wellness

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17 pages, 275 KB  
Article
The COVID-19 Pandemic as a Global Crisis: Aspects of University Students’ Well-Being During the Quarantine in Greece
by Elisabeth K. Andrie, Evangelia Georgia Kostaki, Evanthia Sakellari, Sophie Leontopoulou and Areti Lagiou
Healthcare 2025, 13(19), 2472; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13192472 - 29 Sep 2025
Abstract
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and the rapid transition to emergency online learning affected the academic and social lives of young people. This study aimed (a) to examine how university students’ well-being was influenced during the second stage of the lockdown due to the [...] Read more.
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and the rapid transition to emergency online learning affected the academic and social lives of young people. This study aimed (a) to examine how university students’ well-being was influenced during the second stage of the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2021) in Greece and (b) to explore the relationship between university students’ online learning competence and well-being during the pandemic in two universities in Greece. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted during 2021 among the students at the Universities of West Attica and Ioannina. Participants completed a self-administered online questionnaire including demographics, the General Health Questionnaire-12, the Flourishing Scale Questionnaire, and an Online Education Experience Questionnaire. Focusing on the Flourishing Scale Questionnaire, factor analysis, reliability, and validity of the identified underlying factor were estimated and multivariable median regression analysis was performed to investigate determinants of well-being. Results: 1103 students participated, 73.6% were female, and 80.4% were aged <25 years. Analysis revealed satisfactory convergent validity and high reliability of the Flourishing Scale Questionnaire (Cronbach’s alpha coefficient = 0.88). Over 50% of the participants reported high levels of well-being. Students with greater confidence in using basic online learning tools and satisfaction with living conditions during lockdown reported well-being (p < 0.001). In contrast, those who reported dissatisfaction with their living conditions (p = 0.002) or whose living arrangements were influenced by financial concerns (p = 0.046) reported unwellness. Conclusions: The results provided useful insight into the complex interrelations between the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine, online education, and young people’s well-being, especially nowadays, when education, employment, and entertainment increasingly rely on internet-delivered modes for young people. Full article
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