La medicina specialistica: una panoramica europea

This essay aims at delivering an overview of the European organization of the secondary care, namely that provided by specialist doctors. For this purpose five countries have been analyzed: France, German, United Kingdom, Sweden and Spain, adding also a brief mention to the Italian situation. Starting from a widespread needing of reforming the healthcare systems in order to match both the economic, epidemiologic and technologic challenges, this work outline the general transition towards models which tend to privilege the territorial services and the home care, empowering the primary care, in which several health professionals, and among them also specialist doctors, are called to work, guaranteeing also the continuity through the whole healthcare pattern of patients.