Anticipatory care (AC) identifies who is at risk of developing an illness and works to keep people well. AC is not a reactive system, but one that "anticipates health needs before they arise and that delivers continuous, integrated, preventive care with the patient as partner". Effective anticipatory care reduces the use of expensive health and social services. Historically, AC programs have been managed through (medical) general practice, and combine "a population approach with long term productive relationships, between patients and professionals who know and trust each other, and who are guided by evidence and audit".

Anticipatory care involves health services and individuals, but the risk of developing a chronic illness is also produced by the social determinants of health, the "material, social, political, and cultural conditions that shape our lives and our behaviors". Julian Tudor Hart, regarded as one of the two founders of anticipatory care, noted the problem of treating a patient but then sending them home to the conditions that had caused their illness. This link between social (and economic) factors and health is central to anticipatory care.