Dar S B, Khan H S, Hasnain M, Khan J S.
Family medicine: a missing link in health system of Pakistan.
Biomedica Jan ;30(4):301-6.

By taking a global perspective in order to look at how the field of Medicine has diversified, we believe that we can come to see how the Family Physician has, over time, disappeared from it. Prior to the idea of the Family Physician, a single, non-specialist, Physician would be responsible for the oversight, diagnosis and treatment of a number of diseases. However, due to the ever increasing number of illnesses and diseases, over time, the role of the Family Physician became minimized, as Specialist Physicians of particular illnesses and diseases began emerging at speed. We now find ourselves, particularly in Pakistan, in dire need of more Family Physicians. In this review we look at how, in other parts of the world, Family Physicians – also referred to as General Practitioners, or ‘GPs’ in parts of Europe – are responsible for the preventive and curative provision to whole families. The principles of Family Medicine, we argue, are universal, and there are few contextual factors, such as geography, the availability of material and medical resources, as well as disease prevalence, that impact the practice of Family Physicians from country to country. By looking at these factors and by summing up the countries in which they are endemic, we believe we can then establish a link between the similarities in each First World Country, and provide a contrast between those and the things that impact practice in Third World Countries. We also examine the role of regulation, qualifications and contemporary primary and family care in Pakistan.

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