General practitioners' role in cancer care: a French-Norwegian study.

Background: In cancer care, a GP's work is rarely defined clearly. Our aim was to assess GPs' work with cancer patients in France and in Norway, where the roles of the GP and the organization of the system are rather different.

Findings: A questionnaire with 40 closed-ended questions about GP involvement in diagnosis, treatment, follow-up and terminal care was constructed and mailed to samples of GPs.

[On the development of health insurance in low-income countries: the case of African countries].

Health financing reforms in most low-income countries promote social and micro health insurance, in order to reduce direct spending by patients. Three phases of development can be distinguished in African countries: at first, schemes were developed only for the formal sector, then micro health insurance targeted the informal sector, and finally, health insurance was included in larger plans to reach universal coverage. The impact of health insurance is, as yet, difficult to assess.