[Education and training of the general physician]

The authors of this paper, part of which was presented at the Seventh Pan American Conference on Medical Education (New Orleans, October 1978), recognize that training programs for general physicians should relate to the particular socioeconomic conditions and characteristics of the individual country and region. They propose that the general physician in developing countries be prepared in graduate courses to provide primary care, in order to give service immediately after graduation and because opportunities elsewhere for recent graduates are limited. After outlining new curriculum proposals for the general physicians, they argue against the establishment of departments of family medicine in Latin American medical schools. It is suggested that the general physician's training take place in outpatient clinics, health centers, and community and teaching hospitals, to make possible the integration of the medical education and medical care. Until such time when integration is achieved, the teaching hospital should afford medical education and care on a small scale, offering outpatient general clinics, nonspecialized services, and community health activities.