[General practice and internal medicine. The fighting with shared issues]

The training of the primary care physicians has been neglected for long by the French medical faculties that, since 1958, favoured the hyper-specialization of their students. The initiative of a few primary care physicians supported by some academic internal medicine physicians allowed changing this situation gradually. Commitment of a training period in primary care practice and then the involvement of teaching general medicine physicians in the course of the theoretical training were essential to this shift. Following three decades of reforms that lead to recognize general medicine as a sub-specialty, an acknowledged academic course of general medicine is eagerly expected for 2009 with the first appointments of professors of general medicine with tenure. The general internists who share the same objective of global patient care are determined to support this academic course that they will welcome within the French National Council of Universities. This academic course will have to comply with the same teaching and research requirements than the other medical subspecialties.