Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Family Medicine & Interprofessional Primary Care in the Global Health Context

Course Description

The World Health Organization and the recently adopted new Astana Declaration of 2018
identify primary health care as the pathway of choice for achieving health equity and responding
to today’s global health challenges as laid out in the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030.
Primary Health Care combines quality primary care that includes team-based Family Medicine
with multi-sectoral action on health and the empowerment of people, families and communities
and robust.

Family Medicine & Primary Care in the Global Health Context is intended to provide an
overview of key issues pertinent to the strengthening and delivery of primary care and family
medicine around the world in line with the call of the Astana Declaration while highlighting
specifically, based on a review of the evidence, how family medicine can impact global health
locally and globally. A key focus of the course will be the history and evolution of primary care,
within a broader context of primary health care, and within a social policy framework as well as
a comparative analysis of case studies from around the world, including the Americas, Africa,
Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean region (Gulf States & the Middle East). Recent and evolving
global health policies related to the development of robust primary care from an interprofessional
collaborative practice perspectives will also be considered. The key defining elements of primary
care will be reviewed and discussed. Consideration will be given to how the role of family
medicine, nursing, and interprofessional collaborative practice contributes to primary health
care and primary care.

Course Objectives

By the end of this course participants will be able to:

1. Describe the evolution of primary health care and of primary care within a broader social
   policy context including recent and ongoing developments in related global health
   policies;
2. Compare the development of primary care, primary health care, and family medicine in
   different countries and regions using as a framework the Sustainable Development Goals
   (SDGs), Universal Health Coverage (UHC), and collaborative practice through a critical
   analysis of political, economic, and social contexts;
3. Analyze the role of family medicine and primary care in responding to global health
   challenges, aligning with primary health care (as per Astana Declaration), and promoting
   health equity; and
4. Describe how human health workforce and interprofessional collaborative practices
   contribute to primary health care, primary care, and Sustainable Development Goals
   (SDGs).

Methods of Assessment

Participation	10%
Short Assignment	25%
Final Assignment	45%
Presentation	20%