This edited text is the fourth in a series entitled the Sociology of Health Professions: Future International Developments, published by Policy Press and edited by Mike Saks and Mike Dent, supported by a high-profile international advisory board. The research-based series is focused on giving innovatory sociological insights into the past, present and future development of the health professions. It is mainly oriented towards final year and postgraduate students, academic lecturers/researchers, practitioners and policy-makers. Books included in the series must be resonant with the template for the general Policy Press series on the sociology of the health professions, which aims:

• • to inform and stimulate debate about issues in the sociology of health professions;

• • to influence policy development and practice in the fields concerned;

• • to make a significant contribution to academic thinking in the sociology of health; and

• • to produce original national or international work of recognised high quality.

The significance of this book on the role of medical doctors in health reform lies in offering valuable and detailed comparative insights into this subject in England and Canada. As such, Jean-Louis Denis, Sabrina Germain, Catherine Régis and Gianluca Veronesi, as authors of this unique monograph, provide an historical and contemporary analysis that indicates the great, but different, textured influence of these professional groups on health policy in these countries. We therefore again very much welcome this new addition to the Policy Press series on the sociology of the health professions, following Professional Health Regulation in the Public Interest, Support Workers and the Health Professions in International Perspective, and most recently, The Allied Health Professions: A Sociological Perspective, with more fascinating and original commissioned work to come on migration and dentistry in a global context.