title: [The Rise and Demise of the Chinese barefoot doctor.].
abstract: A novelty-the barefoot doctor appeared in Chinese rural areas during the period of a great proletarian cultural revolution, which used minimum funds to train maximum sub healthcare workers and solved the most difficult healthcare problems of peasants, who accounted for the largest proportion of the population. Barefoot doctors and the system of cooperative health care had embarked on a rural developing path of healthcare with Chinese Characteristics such as a low-cost but high-yield healthcare, which meant a poor country could do major health work. Barefoot doctors providing basic health care service and health protection for the rural residents played a particular role in promoting the formation of international primary health care ideas. As time passed, barefoot doctors have departed the stage of history, but a principle had been established, which is that the function of basic health prevention and health care networks in rural areas should not be weakened, let alone disappear.
authors.affiliation: The Institute for the Chinese material medica, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100700, China.
authors.forename: Rui-Xian
authors.initials: RX
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D003150:Community Health Workers; D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D006296:Health Services; D006801:Humans