Family medicine education in Canada.

Within the sphere of health and welfare, Canada has more in common with the Scandinavian countries than with the United States. This article describes and discusses the unique role of the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the education and training for family medicine, both on the undergraduate and postgraduate levels in Canada. The development of the Master of Clinical Science in Family Medicine degree programme at the University of Western Ontario is considered to be an important vehicle for strengthening academic family medicine in Canada. The amalgamation of current knowledge not only from clinical sciences and educational research, but also from the social sciences, is seen as fundamental to the continued improvement of this discipline.