In the path of the trailblazing barefoot doctors

Well-trained medical professionals are picking up where those who were both farmers and physicians left off

For many decades health workers in villages throughout China have spent most of their work time as farmers even as they have maintained a certain level of medical knowledge and skills allowing them to give basic treatment to ill neighbors from time to time. They were called barefoot doctors.

Now a system covering rural areas throughout the country in which a family physician is designated to serve particular people is ensuring that rural dwellers have access to a much more reliable standard of healthcare.