FAMILY MEDICINE – WORLD PERSPECTIVE A Family Medicine Training Program in the Republic of Georgia: Incorporating a Model of Chronic Disease Management

Background: This study describes a different approach to increase the number of family medicine phy-sicians trained with specific competencies in the management of chronic disease. Methods: In 1999 the Republic of Georgia initiated an ambitious program designed to retrain prac-ticing physicians in the specialty of family medicine. At 2 of the implementation sites, the Center for International Health worked with local health authorities to augment the official 940-hour curriculum to include lesson plans, workshops, and practicum experiences emphasizing a model of chronic disease management, giving particular attention to hypertension. Results: The population served by the training sites has benefited in a cost-effective manner by achieving blood pressure control for as little as $8 per year per patient; the physician learners have performed above their peer group on standardized national testing. Conclusion: Family medicine training programs in resource-poor settings can incorporate chronic disease management models into their curriculum and achieve high-quality patient care outcomes. (J Am Board Fam Med 2007;20:557–564.) From the early days of its independence in 1991, the Republic of Georgia recognized that it had