The 2021 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report, “ Implementation of High-Quality Primary Care: Rebuilding the Foundation of Health Care ,” discusses strategies to support the survival of primary care. It addresses financial health and recommends payment centered on people, not services. The report also emphasizes that primary care is a common good and should be accessible for every individual. It identifies five high level objectives with regard to payment, access, workforce development, information technology and implementation.
Researchers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality underscore the critical role of research for successful implementation of the NASEM report and assert that primary care’s future rests upon strategic investments in primary care research to provide the evidence needed to enable primary care to realize its full potential. This research would emphasize whole person care in which clinicians engage patients and families in managing illness and promoting wellness, as well as payment models and technology to support them. The authors, led by the director of AHRQ’s Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement Arlene Bierman, M.D., M.S., believe that enhancing the community-centeredness of primary care would reduce and ultimately eliminate long-standing inequities in access, quality and outcomes of care.
Realizing the Dream: The Future of Primary Care Research
Arlene S. Bierman, MD, MS, et al
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, Maryland
https://www.doi.org/10.1370/afm.2788
The Annals of Family Medicine