Possibilities of family medicine in medical education

Family medicine is a discipline that has only recently joined the academic arena. Because of this, the academic contribution of this discipline to universities has not been clarified yet. On the other hand, the medical schools suffer from well-known challenges, that have been largely known in the discussions about the crisis of academic medicine. The article explores the possibilities of mutual cooperation between family medicine and the universities. In order to profit from the qualities of academic medicine and family medicine, a partnership between the two needs to be established. It should be built on acceptance of differences and adaptation of family medicine to the rules of the academia, which should be done without sacrificing its principles. The author describes three potential scenarios how family medicine can be introduced in the undergraduate curriculum: a) as a subject at the end of the curriculum, b) as collaboration in early patient contact and teaching clinical skills and c) as part of the integrated curriculum. The author concludes that both family medicine and the medical school have a lot to benefit from mutual cooparation. This requires compromises that are not always easy.