Professional Medical Associations: the Influence on Improving the Quality of Medical Care

For every citizen and society as a whole, health is a great value, because it primarily determines the standard of living of the population and the quality of its workforce. The growing demand of society for improvement and maintenance of health causes a great need for system of medical care improvement in general and its separate elements in particular. One of the most important areas in the health care system is the implementation and improvement of quality of medical care as a target function of the state policy in the field of protection of citizens’ health in Russian Federation. As one of the main participants in the modern quality management system of medical care professional medical associations only have a secondary importance. Above all, the existing position of medical associations is due to the imperfection of the associations themselves in organizational, managerial, ideological, motivational and other issues, as well as the peculiarity of the existing legal field, and the lack of dialogue between doctors and the state "on an equal footing". However, the impact of professional medical associations on the health care system and, in particular, on the quality of health care, as the experience of other countries shows, is quite significant and can be more effective and efficient in our country in comparison with the current reality.