Abstract

Family medicine is a medical specialty devoted to comprehensive primary care for people of all ages. It has been recognized and developed as the foundation of modern healthcare system in all other advanced countries (except USA), and has enjoyed great success in the improvement of national health status and constraint of healthcare expenditure. The new healthcare reform plan and the development of family medicine system in China with focus on the wellbeing of all people have been hailed as a historic milestone. Establishment of a new specialty from scratch into a massive work force, however, has proven to be a tremendous challenge. With strong momentum from central government and the support of favorable finance and policy, a great achievement could be made when the healthcare model has truly changed from specialty care into primary care in medical education institutions and the healthcare industry, and the creation of hundreds of family medicine residency training programs has been accomplished. This article elucidated some perspectives and strategies on the development of family medicine in China.