We wish you a happy family doctor's day, May 19. The World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) has declared May 19th as World Family Doctor Day since 2010.

Reminding and celebrating this occasion shows the importance of family doctors in advanced health systems as well as the inevitable development of family physician programs in the future of other countries. Congratulations on this day to family doctors, those who have been and are in charge of the first line of treatment and prevention of diseases, especially in the Covid 19 pandemic, we celebrate World Family Doctors Day.

Family medicine is a type of medicine in which family physicians are in direct contact with families. These doctors are responsible for primary health care and are physicians who are always present. They are usually in contact with families in case of illness or accidents. 

Due to accurate knowledge of the people covered by them and familiarity with their medical history, these doctors can find out their illnesses sooner and treat them continuously in case of illness, and only if they need more extensive services, the person should A specialist or subspecialist will refer you. People who have a family doctor have a trusted and knowledgeable counselor for their medical problems. 

Family physicians are also always available and present, caring for the target population.

Periodic examinations and monitoring of people's health status, easy and round-the-clock access to basic services and primary care, and preventing frequent visits to doctors are the characteristics of a family physician.

According to the legal requirements approved by the Islamic Consultative Assembly and emphasizing paragraph B of Article 91 of the Fourth Development Plan and paragraph B of Article 37 of the Budget Law of 2009 on establishing a referral system using the family physician strategy and launching this system for individuals in the country We also design and implement a rural family physician program since 2005, to continue to meet the needs of the community, the need to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the health sector, balance health care costs and provide access to services to 28 million people living in rural areas.    

Nomads and cities with less than 20,000 people, with the location of about 7,000 general practitioners and 5,000 midwives, have been implemented as the second revolution in the health system after the first revolution, which was the "establishment of a health care network system based on PHC."

The implementation of the family doctor program in urban areas also began in June 2012 in Fars and Mazandaran provinces. Between the patient and physician, reducing out-of-pocket payments has been an important effect and benefit of the urban family physician program.

In this regard, in the Islamic Republic of Iran since 2015, following the changes in the demographic model, and since people preferred to share their problems with specialists, even in the first contact, the desire for super-specialized fields had weakened the general fields. 

The field of family medicine was launched in 12 universities of medical sciences and health services. The purpose of launching a specialized field of family medicine in the country, saving health costs, providing better services by family medical professionals, strengthening health care, provide continuous services and more effective follow-up, control the supply and demand system, and proper allocation of resources, referral Correcting patients to other specialists, reducing the pressure of clients from specialists, recording patient medical records over time, reducing the burden of various diseases, improving health indicators, creating the necessary capabilities to implement the programs in question and the desired community-based Definitions and global standards of family physician has been the gradual provision of a suitable platform for the establishment of family medicine based on the definitions and standards of global and the World Health Organization. 

Training of people at the professional level who can perform more powerful actions in the field of service delivery independently, people who have the degree of expertise as family physicians to be able to perform procedures. Therefore, at present, with the training of more than 220 family medicine specialists, the training of assistants in the field of family medicine in Iran has been stopped for unknown reasons, and the Iranian Ministry of Health has not been able to place family medicine specialists in their real position. 

It is expected that with the full implementation of the family medicine-based referral system, the Islamic Republic of Iran, like other leading countries with a model following international standards, will cover all members of society in the family medicine program and take effective steps to improve the health of Islamic Iran.

Ebrahim Noori-Goushki is a family medicine specialist and faculty of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.