THEnet’s CEO Björg Pálsdóttir attending a meeting on Building a Primary Care Workforce at the National Academies in July 2023
On July 18 2023, The National Academies in Washington, DC, convened a special meeting on Building the Workforce for Implementing High-Quality Primary Care: A Pre-Condition for Progress. THEnet’s CEO Björg Pálsdóttir was on the planning committee for the event, and so was Dr. Jan de Maeseneer, a former dean of THEnet member Ghent University. Dr. Sarita Verma, the President, Vice Chancellor, Dean and CEO of NOSM University and Dr. Jusie-Siega-Sur, former dean of the University of the Philippines, Manila School of Health Sciences in Leyte presented at the meeting. Both institutions are founding members of THEnet.The meeting brought together a small group of experts to develop recommendations shared with attendees of an international conference on The Essential Role of Primary Health Care to Health Security and Securing Health that took place on July 19th and 20th. The conference was organized by the Pan American Health Organization, The Commonwealth Fund, the Center for Professionalism and Value in Health Care, The American Board of Family Medicine Foundation, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Resolve to Save Lives, and Ariadne Labs. Attendees included ministers and policymakers from around the world as well as subject matter experts.
On July 19th the co-organizers of the meeting Dr. Warren Newton, President and CEO of the American Board of Family Medicine, Danielle Martin, Chair Department of Family and Community Medicine Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, and Dr. Zohray Talib, Executive Vice Dean for Education, Department of Medical Education California University of Science and Medicine, presented the recommendations developed on July 18th to conference participants. Recommendations focused on changes needed at the health system, institutional and patient-provider levels to ensure that health systems and community benefit from a well-trained and well-supported primary care workforce. Proceedings will be published by the National Academies.
