[Medical research in Finnmark].

Finnmark county, the most northern in Norway, has suffered from a severe shortage of specialist health services. In order to recruit specialist doctors to Finnmark and to keep them there, a programme for creating opportunities to do medical research in Finnmark was launched by the University of Tromsø. From 1986 to 1992 the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs has contributed a total of 8.5 mill. NOK to the programme, which is administered by the Medical Faculty at the University of Tromsø, in cooperation with the two hospitals in Finnmark. The programme has led to a substantial recruitment of doctors, both for specialist training as well as fully educated specialists. The percentage of unfilled positions has fallen from 81 to 29 in the period. 41 scientific papers have been published from the programme, 22 of them in international journals. The programme seems to have fulfilled its aims, both as regards stabilizing the specialist health service, and in a scientific context. We propose decentralized research programmes as a means of establishing cooperation between university hospitals and remote health care systems.