A plea for an initiative to strengthen family medicine in public health care services of developing countries.

An analysis of standards for the best practice of family medicine in Northern European countries provides a framework for identifying the difficulties and deficiencies in the health services of developing countries, and offers strategies and criteria for improving primary health care practice. Besides well-documented socioeconomic and political problems, poor quality of care is an important factor in the weaknesses of health services. In particular, a patient-centered perspective in primary care practice is barely reflected in the medical curriculum of developing countries.