The year 2003 will mark the 4th centenary of the Norwegian public health system. The formal occasion is the appointment of Dr. Vilhadius Adamius (c. 1564-1616) as ordinario medico in 1603. He was granted income from the crown's landed property to carry on his work as a doctor in Bergen, at the time a provincial town in the kingdom of Denmark-Norway. Denmark already had 10-12 doctors in similar offices. Dr. Vilhadius was not the first physician in Norway, nor was he the first with public funding. But as the first doctor in a clearly defined office, he stands out as a strong symbol of the rudimentary health care system introduced in Denmark-Norway in the 17th century. In many ways, he represents the formation of the early modern state, and a modernization process in which the appointments of doctors mirrored the state's growing willingness and ability to assume responsibility for the health of its subjects.