Abstract
It is important to know the history of primary care in order to understand the need of primary care medicine in the world. In the United States the Specialty Board of Family Practice was organized in 1969. Primary care includes two components in it. The first is that it is the first contact medicine dealing with episodic care and also distributive care dealing with chronic diseases, prevenive medicine and guidance of lifestyle of the individuals and their families. The second is the fundamental knowledge and skills rwquired of every physician engaged in family practice. When family physicians deal with their community people personally, it is difficult to understand the problems of consumers and give needed guidance and care to them without the knowledge and skills of approaching them from psychological, social as well as physical aspects of the problems. Without the training of clinical medicine including psychosomatic medicine, it is difficult to educate physicians to be the primary care or family physians in the real meaning of the words. Psychosomatic medicine should be the core of clinical medicine, as well as in primary care medicine which deals with the patient as a holistic person with body and mind.
