| Abstract: | Participants at the 1988 World Conference on Medical Education in Edinburgh, Scotland, resolved to make the training of physicians more relevant to the needs of the majority in their own societies. The majority of the disadvantaged suffer from morbidity caused by malnutrition, low-quality water supplies, unsanitary conditions, inadequate housing, and illiteracy. It is with regard to these factors that greater interaction is needed between the medical profession and the non-medical education, research, and extension system on the one hand and social infrastructures on the other. The interactions may not be in general terms, but in terms of specific ethnic groups in which they happen to practice. Researchers and experts in the field of social science must make a concerted effort to provide a realistic baseline of information to the medical profession about the ethno-psycho-social environment of a given niche. The masses are apathetic, tired, and generally do not trust governmental medical functionaries. These feelings derive largely from poor people's necessary dependence upon poor facilities, practitioners' inhuman attitudes toward the sick, unclean surroundings, the widespread prevalence of unethical practices, excessive delays, and other negative factors. People who can afford to secure care in the private sector. The author comments on infant mortality, the concept of human development, social development, and population growth. |
