Family medicine in Paraguay

Family Medicine is present in Paraguay since 1981, when officially starts the Family Medicine Residency Programs, at Baptist Hospital in Asuncion (called today Baptist Medical Center). Until 1998, only this hospital was the former of family medicine specialists. After that, several residency programs in others public and private hospitals were opened. In the 1990 the Paraguayan Society of Family Medicine was founded. In the last 10 years, the specialty had grown in an interesting way, because the public and private universities started the family medicine as undergraduate field, they had increased the residence programs and the available spots in there, and the Ministry of Health initiated the opening of Units of Family Health. Also, in the last couple of years, the Paraguayan Society of Family Medicine has begun the regularization of the certification and recertification of the Specialty.