Creation of postgraduate training programs for family medicine in Vietnam.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The Vietnam Family Medicine Development Project has successfully created postgraduate training programs for family medicine in Vietnam. This paper's objective is to report on the project's progress and provide initial evaluation results. METHODS A training network of medical schools in Vietnam partnered with family medicine departments in the United States to accomplish the goal of establishing family medicine as a specialty in Vietnam with assistance from the Ministry of Health. Together they created a curriculum and ambulatory training sites. Faculty development was accomplished, and training programs were implemented. RESULTS A preliminary assessment of some of the graduates demonstrates that family physicians in Vietnam provide enhanced primary care with better patient satisfaction. A more-complete evaluation is underway. CONCLUSIONS Initial establishment of the specialty of family medicine in Vietnam has been successful. Ongoing support for the development of this new primary care specialty has been garnered in each of the medical schools and at the ministerial level throughout the country.