The development of family medicine in Israel.
Israeli family medicine provides an example of the accelerated development of a new discipline. This development occurred in a highly dynamic and rapidly growing society against a background of conflicting cultural traditions within the health care field. The developmental stages included: 1) the preponderance of specialists over generalists, 2) the introduction of family medicine teaching into the undergraduate medical curriculum, 3) the achievement of family medicine's independence from the status of a branch of internal medicine or community medicine, 4) the development of the residency training programs, and 5) the establishment of a national academic infrastructure. This paper analyzes the unsolved problem of gaining significant numbers of university academic appointments. Also, two major challenges for the future are examined: 1) the integration of preventive care into family practice, and 2) the exposure of primary care to competition from hospital-based specialists in an atmosphere of increasing commercialism. The Israeli experience forms a basis for comparison for family medicine in other countries.
Weingarten
M A
MA
Department of Family Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Israel.
Lederer
J
J
D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003479:Curriculum / Q000639:trends; D004465:Economic Competition / Q000639:trends; D005194:Family Practice / Q000193:education / Q000639:trends*; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000639:trends; D007557:Israel; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000639:trends; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000639:trends; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000639:trends; D013038:Specialization / Q000639:trends