Family medicine training curricula across the Asia–Pacific region

Abstract Background. Family medicine education has expanded across the Asia-Pacific region, but program structures, curriculum content, assessment, and regulatory pathways vary substantially and are often documented outside indexed journals. Family medicine education is critical to developing a primary care-ready workforce; however, there is limited consolidated evidence on how undergraduate and postgraduate family medicine curricula are structured and implemented across Asia-Pacific countries and jurisdictions, making it difficult to identify shared priorities, regional variation, and opportunities for curriculum strengthening. Methods. This scoping review followed Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for Scoping Review (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines, a systematic search was conducted from 1 January 2000 to 1 September 2026 across PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC, and CINAHL. Search strategies combined MeSH terms and free-text keywords for Family Practice/Primary Care, Medical Curriculum/Education, and Asia-Pacific territories. The strategy underwent PRESS review by two reviewers. Indexed searching was supplemented by citation searching and structured country-partner expert verification, and summaries of national curricula, syllabi, policies, accreditation standards, and program documents. Evidence was charted by jurisdiction, training level, program architecture, curriculum domains, teaching and supervision, assessment, governance, and equity orientation. Critical appraisal was used to support interpretation, not eligibility. Results. The database search identified 20,751 records. After removal of 9,960 duplicates, 10,791 records were screened; 10,040 were excluded at the title/abstract stage. Of 751 reports sought, 18 could not be retrieved or assessed and 733 were assessed in full text; 710 were excluded with recorded reasons, leaving 23 included records. A separate other-methods arm comprised 19 country summaries prepared by 37 collaborators from 19 jurisdictions, which referenced 199 country curriculum/policy documents deposited in the OSF package. The synthesis therefore drew on 23 database-identified reports and 19 country summaries (199 underlying documents). Postgraduate pathways predominated, while undergraduate family medicine ranged from longitudinal community exposure to short clerkships. Program duration, supervision, assessment architecture, and specialty recognition varied markedly. Recurring themes were community-based learning, comprehensive person-centred care, rural and underserved practice, workplace-based assessment, portfolios, research or quality-improvement activity, and increasing attention to digital health. Conclusion. Asia-Pacific family medicine education shares a recognizable core but is organized through diverse national and institutional pathways. The 199-document country corpus materially extends the indexed evidence base for comparison, , although collaborator verification remains important for institution-specific pathways, recent reforms, and changing accreditation and regulatory arrangements. Keywords: family medicine; general practice; curriculum; medical education; residency; undergraduate; postgraduate; Asia-Pacific, workforce