Abstract
The barefoot doctor in China has been regarded as successful due to his willingness to serve the community. The barefoot doctor is trained for short didactic periods followed by practical experience in the village under a physician or nurses supervision. The program emphasizes disease prevention and health education as well as screening to treat only minor problems. Barefoot doctors are trained according to the relative importance of different diseases in each region while they continue their normal occupation. Iran has similarly trained barefoot doctors but has encountered cultural and political dynamics problems. When VHW (village health workers) were chosen they were usually a relative of the village headman rather than a worker chosen by the villagers themselves. In addition women who could play an important role in maternal and child health and family planning were generally not allowed to leave the village for training. Iranian barefoot doctors favored curative medicine using injections rather than preventive medicine. However rival factions in the village distrusted the VHW believing the barefoot doctor would poison them. The Chinese barefoot doctor is not easily transportable to Iran due to village social structure rural medical assumptions and problems of organizing cooperative health delivery.
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