Læknablaðið - 01.08.1966, Page 72

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L Æ K N A B L A Ð I Ð
Höfundur þessa erindis, austurríski
læknirinn dr. Fritz Geiger, er forseti
alþjóðasamtaka almennra lækna. Hann
kom hér við á ferðalagi í sumar. Kom
þá til orða, að hann héldi erindi á fundi
í L. R., en þar sem tími var naumur og
óhentugur til fundarhalds, var horfið að
því ráði að birta erindið heldur í Lækna-
blaðinu.
Fritz Geiger dr. med.:
THE PRESENT SITUATION OF THE GENERAL
PRACTITIONER IN FIVE CONTINENTS AND TRENDS OF
FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
After World War II in many countries, colleges, academies orequiv-
alent organizations of General Practice were founded. Never before
in the history of medicine had the General Practioner had his own
academic body. There were several causes for the fact that General
Practitioners throughout the world began to establish their own organ-
izations of academic bodies only after World War II. The analysis of
these causes showed some interesting aspects. During World War II in
many countries the old sociological systems had changed into new ones.
Old norms and social values had been replaced by new ones. The
technological development had reached a new peak. Medicine as a
whole was very much influenced by all this new development. The old
G. P. seemed to be outmoded because his technical standard couid not
compete with the new born specialists and their ultra-modern equip-
ment. Society was fascinated by all kinds of techniques and even simple
patients began to look down on the old fashioned G. P., who said he
was able to diagnose and treat without complicated techniques.
The medical students also were caught by the many modern tech-
niques of post-war medicine and they also began to over-look the career
of the simple G. P. Their teachers at the Universities often showed
them the difference between the poor life of a G. P. and the fascinating
life and career of the specialists.
When World War II came to an end we had about 10 specialties in
medicine. 20 years later these 10 big specialties had sub-divided into
about 30 new sub-specialties. This sub-division made room for many
new careers, many new professorships, new institutions, new research
units at the Universities and big hospitals. Thus medical students of
this post-war generation found open doors to specialization. At the