Research progress on general practitioners-specialists joint consultation service

At present, general practitioners in China lack both specialist knowledge and ability, which calls for close cooperation between general practitioners and specialists to better guarantee medical quality and patient safety. The authors reviewed the connotation, research status, development trend, problems and suggestions of general practitioners-specialists joint consultation service. Based on such, they pointed out that such a general practitioner-specialist joint clinic is quite new in the country, but numerous literature has confirmed that it can not only make up for services fragmentation, but also reduce referral rate.Furthermore, it can improve the quality of people′s lives, improve the general practitioner′s professional knowledge and skills, standardize general practitioner′s rational drug use. All these prove the reform an effective measure and deserves further promotion and greater supervision. Key words: General practitioners; Specialists; Joint consultation; Two-way referral; Progress