Kidd (health sciences, Flinders U., Australia) and a group of family doctors from around the world offer a guidebook that demonstrates how family medicine can help countries maintain and improve their citizens' health and well-being by developing a productive, coordinated, and cost-effective approach to health care. It outlines a rationale for structuring health systems to be more responsive to people's needs, a vision of optimal health services delivery based on primary care, challenges to achieving it, family medicine's response to them, and strategies for developing and strengthening family practice. It describes the importance of focusing on unifying priorities like the health status of each person in a community, the collective health of the population, and equitable distribution of care; the characteristics and functions of health care delivery systems; why family doctors are important, their roles and responsibilities, and the quality and cost-effectiveness of their work; the education and training needed; the components of the environment needed for them to contribute to a country's health care system; the development of family medicine in lower and middle-income countries, specifically Brazil, China, the Eastern Mediterranean region, and Thailand; and the development and challenges of family medicine in Africa. The volume is intended for family doctors and family medicine academics, health care managers, policy makers, and public health and primary care professionals. Published by Radcliffe Publishing, UK, and distributed in the US by BookMasters. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
"This guidebook systematically analyses the contribution of family medicine to highquality primary health care in addressing the challenges faced by current health systems, and provides options for moving forward. It serves as a pragmatic guide to potential strategies for putting in place family care teams which effectively contribute to health sector development within a variety of contexts." From the Foreword by Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General, World Health Organization "...the quest to maintain and improve the health and well-being of people throughout the world is enriching. It adds substantial meaning to the lives of those who contribute to a process that joins the human family in a common undertaking based on intrinsic respect for the dignity of each individual. The roots of this process run as deep as humanity's oldest efforts to alleviate suffering, yet they are nourished by the approaches described in the following pages that draw on current developments in education and patient care, recent epidemiological research, and ongoing examples of successful implementation among diverse communities throughout the world." From the Executive Summary The much anticipated second edition of this guidebook reveals ways in which family medicine can help countries throughout the world maintain and improve health and well-being by developing a more productive, coordinated and cost-effective approach to health care. It describes: - the rationale for structuring health systems to be more responsive to the needs of people - a vision of optimal health services delivery based on primary health care - challenges to achieving this vision - family medicine's response to these challenges - strategies for developing and strengthening family practice within countries. It provides practical inspirational reading for family doctors and family medicine academics, health care managers, policy makers and shapers, and public health and primary health care academics and professionals who will benefit greatly from implementing the flexible, local level options presented to the benefit of the people of their communities and their nations.
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