Family medicine in Japan
B. W. Smith, R. Demers and L. Garcia-Shelton
Department of Family Practice, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA.
Two networks of medical care have grown up in Japan: 1 network based in
hospitals and 1 based in private clinics. Most physicians in clinics
practice general medicine, although only a small proportion of them are
trained in primary care. Postgraduate medical education is oriented toward
the training of specialists. Owing to the impending retirement of the
cohort of clinic-based physicians who have dominated medical politics in
Japan, the system is expected to change substantially in the next decade.
Among the reformers is a small group of physicians who are attempting to
introduce family practice.
