Family medicine training by distance education.

A postgraduate programme is developed to provide Family Medicine training to practising General Practitioners. The programme provides physicians with didactic material by distance education while enhancing clinical competence through face-to-face sessions in ambulatory clinics. Assessment of participating physicians is based on the responses to distance education assignments, case presentations during clinical sessions, clinical examinations at the end of year 2 and the defense of a research project in year 3. Initial programme evaluations demonstrate that the distance education format is successfully incorporated in the discipline of Family Medicine postgraduate training.