Developing Academic Surgery in a Socialized Health Care System

The most important benefit of a socialized health care system is the elimination of the threat of personal financial ruin to pay for medical care. Serious disadvantages of a socialized health care system, particularly in a university hospital setting, include restricted financial resources for education and patient care, limited working facilities, and loss of physician-directed decision making in planning and prioritizing. This article describes how a group practice model has supported clinical and academic activities within the faculty of medicine of our university and offers this model as a possible template for other surgical and medical disciplines working in an academic socialized environment.