During the 17 years that remain till the year 2000, by which it is aspired to have achieved the goal of Health for All, medical manpower training will have to be redesigned to meet the purposes of that goal and to prepare the health service team for the challenges that await it in that no longer so distant future. The writer analyzes the Region's demographic, socioeconomic, technological and health situations and trends, and the parts played by the physician and the health services, and comes to the conclusion that, in addition to rationalizing the utilization of resources, primary care involves a profound transformation of the physician's social function and working situation; in other words, that the function of the physician, how services are used, and the technologies to be applied will have to be redefined for the year 2000. In relation to the outlook for professional practice, the article stresses that, to provide primary care to the entire population, the health services will need multiskilled and multidisciplinary personnel and the full participation of the community, and the preponderant role will fall to the general practitioner. Accomplishing all this will require greater emphasis on training the general practitioner (or family doctor), though without neglecting the specialist, a thoroughgoing and independent review of the study programs of the Latin American medical schools carried out by themselves in a spirit of self-criticism with a view to arriving at their own solutions, and the promotion of a closer physician-patient relationship, in a manner consistent with the political and social structure of each country (Au)