TY - JOUR T1 - General practice and the epidemiology of health and disease in families JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 939 LP - 944 VL - 54 IS - 509 AU - Graham Watt Y1 - 2004/12/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/54/509/939.abstract N2 - WILLIAM Pickles demonstrated that by collecting simple information from a practice over many years, it is poss-ible to make important discoveries concerning the nature of health and illness in local communities. This work was helped by his long-term knowledge of patients and families, and by the natural bonds of goodwill and helpfulness that exist between local communities and their general practitioners (GPs). Three types of more recent family study are described: using simple population data to sample families for investig-ations of susceptibility to diet, the pathophysiology of disease, and perceptions and understandings of familial risk. Research of this nature is increasingly relevant as new genetic technologies are developed and applied, and require not only increased collaboration between GPs; epidemiologists; and clinical, laboratory, and social scientists, but also sustainable relationships with families and communities. General practice is the ideal setting for such research, with its hallmark features of continuity, mutuality, and trust.With the rapid development and application of new methods of genetic investigation, there is unprecedented interest in studies of health and illness in families. Beginning with the work of William Pickles, this lecture describes a series of family studies, based in general practice and in local communities, and considers their relevance for future research and clinical practice.In the first RCGP Mackenzie Lecture,1 William Pickles recalled:‘… a particularly lovely evening in early summer, when I climbed alone to the summit of one of our noble hills. One by one, I made out our grey villages with their thin pall of smoke. And as I watched the evening train creeping up the valley with its pauses at our three stations, a strange thought came into my head that there was hardly a man, woman or child in all those villages of whom I did not know even the … ER -