Around 50% of these are qualified and registered non-allopathic doctors practicing alternative systems of medicine such as homeopathy, ayurveda, and unani [ 11].
Central to the proposed model for the revalidation of doctors are strengthened systems of appraisal, the appointment of "responsible officers" with a statutory role in "overseeing the evaluation of fitness to practise, and monitoring the conduct and performance of doctors," 28 and the need for doctors to present evidence that they are "up to date and fit to practice".
The incidence of GDM has grown fourfold in the past 10 years, according to Dr B Rajkumar, a doctor of Indian systems of medicine at the Keezhariyoor government ayurveda dispensary in the state's northern coastal district of Kozhikode.
Some of the hospitals say they have created integrated systems of doctors and hospitals, already delivering care at lower costs, that will suffer.
The administration's strategy, presented in a report to be published today, regards the government's role as one of mainly setting goals and working with the private sector to establish product and technology standards so the computer systems of doctors, hospitals, laboratories, pharmacists and insurers can efficiently communicate and share information.
In other words, the solution is not merely to use computers, but to link the systems of doctors, hospitals, laboratories, pharmacies and insurers, thus making them, in the jargon, "interoperable".This may be obvious, but today it is also a very distant goal.
In the first successful genetic modification of an inherited disease, French doctors repaired the immune systems of two babies with SCID-X1 in 2000 (ScienceNOW, 28 April).
The first relates to the potential impact of the loss of qualified doctors on the medical systems of the country of origin of these international graduates [ 15].
Though a thorough study of the barefoot doctor system has yet to be carried out, there is no doubt that it represents the first successful, largescale attempt at the delivery of total health care in a developing country cut off from Western civilisation.
In Greece, the capitulary of the family doctor system was lawed in 1997 (N.2519/97) [ 5], but it has not be applied yet.
