| Each of Thailand's four medical schools has an undergraduate teaching programme in social and preventive medicine. These programmes focus on the health problems of large population groups, usually outside the hospital. Emphasis is placed on health promotion and disease prevention. The behavioural and social sciences are used to analyze community attitudes, organization, and health behaviour. Field surveys, home visits, and field practice in rural and urban health centres and mobile clinics constit practical laboratory of the course at present. The momentous question now facing medical schools is to what extent they should involve themselves in health care programmes outside the hospital, and whether this involvement might best be accomplished through an operational programme. Since community medicine developed independently in each of the schools, it is suggested that the establishment of better communication between them, perhaps through a workshop convened by the Ministry of Public Health, would be a positive move toward a coordinated national effort in the field of community health. |