The Evolution of Family Medicine as Independent Discipline

Abstract

Developments in medicine occur in response to various stimuli that could be scientific, technological or social in character. The traditional role of the general practitioner has developed due to these changes and therefore a new role player in the medical fraternity, called the family physician, has evolved. Family medicine is only one of many new disciplines that has developed in the course of medical history, and has evolved from an older branch of medicine - general practice. The term general practitioner was used for the first time during the early 19th century in The Lancet. The relationship between general practice and family medicine, however, is not a simple one.