The contributors to this special issue bring diverse and complex perspectives to our understanding of health and illness in the context of post-socialism. Their analyses cover multiple areas of the structural and interactive dimensions of current social realms and the transformation processes in different national contexts. At the same time, these papers explore the legitimisation and agency employed by the actors involved in negotiating the desired shape of health-care professions and notions of health. The authors’ diverse conceptual and methodological approaches to medical sociology are nonetheless united in their focus on recent changes in the post-socialist region.