In the early years of the development of medical specialization, in 1923, Francis Weld Peabody said that patients got confused and did not know to apply to which branch as a result of specialization in medical disciplines; he emphasized that there should be a specialization branch that would take patients as a whole, but this warning did not attract much attention at that time. Studies on this view have only begun after the Second World War, and the beginning of specialization training of medicine has been in following years. On this issue, "General Health Specialization" had been placed in legal regulation of medicine at 1947 in Turkey and education of assistants began, but this educational process did not succeed. Then, training of specialization in medicine had been added to agenda with the stream of Alma-Ata Conference in 1978 and it took part in legal regulation under the name of “Family Medicine Specialization” with firstly its education and then its practise in Turkey in 1983.
The year 1947 can be considered as a starting year of training of specialization in Primary Health Care for Turkey. When did training of specialization in Primary Health Care start in other countries and especially in your own country?
In Pakistan to date, there are limited organized system of postgraduate training or certification that would prepare a physician to address the basic primary health care needs of communities in both urban and rural areas.
Recognizing the need for well trained general physicians in both rural and urban areas family practice residency began in 1986 . The residency programme was established in 1989 at AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL as an seperate department . The department now is well established also collaborates with a number of stakeholders including College of Physicians and Surgeons, Pakistan, College of Family Medicine, Pakistan, Pakistan Academy of Family Physicians, Royal College of General Practitioners, United Kingdom, World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) and World Health Organization (WHO) to promote family medicine in Pakistan and other regions.
Now Indus has started residency program in karachi and lot of work is going in Punjab as well.
In the United States it was 1969; according to the American Academy of Family Physicians (https://www.aafp.org/about/the-aafp/family-medicine-specialty.html): "The specialty of family medicine was created in 1969 to fulfill the generalist function in medicine, which suffered with the growth of subspecialization after World War II. Since its creation, the specialty has delivered on its promise to reverse the decline of general medicine and provide personal, front-line medical care to people of all socioeconomic strata and in all regions of the United States."
In Spain was created in 1978 and in 1979 was initiated the Residency in this specialty. The health care network was defined in 1984. Only with the General Health law, in 1986 was consolidated. If you are interested this paper about The Development of Family Medicine in Spain, in Spanish idiom, can help you. www.medigraphic.com/pdfs/medfam/amf-2008/amf083b.pdf
Article Turkey in Need of Family Medicine
Ünlüoğlu İ., Ayrancı Ü., Turkey in Need of Family Medicine, Primary Care, 3: 988-994, 2003.
1961 in former Yugoslavia, at the Andrija Štampar School of Public Health
Dear Tanja thank you for the valueable contribution. I had been in Dubrovnik in May 2002 "Training of Teachers in General/ Family Practice Course". I remember that the course was in a historical building and the name was related with Andrija Štampar. It was my first dialog with the academicians and family physicians in the region.
"General Health Specialization" had been placed in legal regulation of medicine at 1947 in Turkey. I wonder, although the name was not family medicine, was it the first example in Primary Health Care speciality.
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