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Advancing primary care: Establishing family medicine specialty in Tanzania
Submitted: 25 July 2023 | Published: 04 December 2023
About the author(s)
Eric L. Aghan, Family Medicine Centre for Research and Development, Socio-Economic and Education Transformation, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Department of Family Medicine, Aga Khan University, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; and Lead Family Medicine Development (informal), Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, United Republic ofHenry Ziegler, School of Public Health and Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle, United States; and Department of Internal Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, United States
Donatus R. Mutasingwa, Department of Family Medicine, Oak Valley Health, Markham, Canada; and Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Family Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Enica R. Massawe, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, United Republic of
Peter J. Wangwe, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, United Republic of
Dennis Lyakurwa, Department of Curative Services, Ministry of Health, Dodoma, Tanzania, United Republic of
Muzdalifat Abeid, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Aga Khan University, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, United Republic of
Riaz Ratansi, Department of Family Medicine, Aga Khan University, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, United Republic of
Nadeem Kassam, Department of Cardiology, Aga Khan University, Nairobi, Kenya
Esther Johnston, Department of Family Medicine, The Wright Center National Family Medicine Residency at HealthPoint, Auburn, United States
Abstract
Family medicine has existed as a training pathway through a private university in Tanzania since 2004. As global calls have increased to embrace primary health care as a pathway to ensuring universal health coverage, so has Tanzania recently turned to explore family medicine as a specialty to improve access to comprehensive, high-quality healthcare for her entire population. This article outlines ongoing efforts to define competencies and skills of a family medicine physician in Tanzania, engage government support and open the first public university training programme for family medicine postgraduate education.
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