East Asia
The East Asian region constitutes China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Mongolia, North Korea, Taiwan, and South Korea and comprises more than 1.6 billion of the world’s population. A high school degree is needed to pursue a medical school education, without the need for a university or college post-secondary degree. Incomplete documentation and a lack of research conducted on these countries resulted in poor findings and a failure to understand the state of family medicine within this region. Additionally, the political state of some countries (ex. North Korea) and the lack of government support and funding in the healthcare sector, increases the instability seen in primary care.