[Professionalization of physicians and health campaigns in twentieth-century Spain]

In this study we analyze the confluence of two processes that characterized the medical profession in Spain during the first third of the twentieth century. Health campaigns provided a formula for strengthening the interests of the professional collective by defining the demand for specific medical services, and consolidating the institutionalization of new areas of medicine, thus justifying their existence on a scientific basis. In addition, these health campaigns, to a great extent, based their propositions on the reputation of the specialist. We analyze two historical cases: the fight against infant mortality and the fight against cancer; the contributions of these two campaigns to the opening of a market for new specialist services, the role of technology, and processes of negotiation with other branches of medicine to guarantee a monopoly in providing treatment are examined.