IPCHS. Integrated People-Centred Health Services

Publications

This growing repository holds WHO documents, scientific publications, policy documents, implementation reports, presentations and others with information and insights about integrated people-centred health services. Share your publication by clicking “Add publication”.

Nov. 7, 2023 Global

Purchasing for quality chronic care: summary report.

Countries are seeking ways to strengthen their financing systems to promote access to quality health services under their commitments to Universal Health Coverage. Chronic conditions account for a large burden of premature mortality, and gaps exist in patient receipt of recommended quality care. The objective of this publication is to describe experiences in purchasing arrangements and payment methods and how they have been used to attain quality of care and health outcomes for chronic conditions.

The publication builds on the existing body of empirical evidence and newly commissioned case studies from Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Germany, Indonesia, South Africa, and ...

Read more
Oct. 23, 2023 Global

People-centred approach to addressing antimicrobial resistance in human health

This document outlines the concept and content of the WHO people-centred approach to addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the human health sector. The proposed approach recognizes and aims to address the challenges and health system barriers people face when accessing health services to prevent, diagnose and treat (drug-resistant) infections. It puts people and their needs at the centre of the AMR response and guides policy-makers in taking programmatic and comprehensive actions to mitigate AMR in line with a proposed package of core interventions. These interventions are based on a review of four pillars and two foundational steps that are critical ...

Read more
Sept. 27, 2023 Global

A vision for primary health care in the 21st century

In 1978 world leaders, international organizations and health authorities gathered in Alma-Ata (now Almaty), Kazakhstan, and released the Declaration of Alma-Ata on Primary Health Care, which remains a landmark document in the history of global health. The Alma-Ata Declaration established a standard of public commitment to making community-driven, quality health care accessible, both physically and financially, for all. This was the forerunner of the Global Strategy for Health for All by the Year 2000 that was pursued by WHO and its partners for the rest of the 20th century, and of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3: “Ensure healthy lives and ...

Read more
Sept. 21, 2023 Global

Progressing primary health care: a series of country case studies

The 1978 Declaration of Alma-Ata (1) was revolutionary. Many countries, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other organizations had been pursuing strategies to provide primary health care (PHC) for years (2). However, Alma-Ata made PHC central to health care policy and practice. In a world in which resources had long been focused on “vertical” health programmes, expanding the focus of health care was a novel approach for the global health community. Since this declaration, efforts to improve health have increasingly been framed in terms of building, strengthening or realigning the systems that contribute ...

Read more
Sept. 21, 2023 Global

Primary health care measurement framework and indicators: monitoring health systems through a primary health care lens

To continuously strengthen PHC, countries must be able to assess how decisions, actions and investments are addressing the broader determinants of health while improving service coverage, financial risk protection, and ultimately the health of individuals and populations. As countries strive to reorient their health systems around the principles of PHC, this document responds to Member States’ request in resolution WHA72.2 on primary health care for guidance to assess, track and monitor PHC performance to accelerate progress towards UHC and the health-related SDGs. The indicators and monitoring and evaluation conceptual framework presented in this document are based on and support ...

Read more
Sept. 19, 2023 Global

Tracking Universal Health Coverage: 2023 Global monitoring report

The world is off track to make significant progress towards universal health coverage (UHC) (SDG target 3.8) by 2030 as improvements to health services coverage have stagnated since 2015, and the proportion of the population that faced catastrophic levels of out-of-pocket (OOP) health spending has increased.

 

Download the report

Read more
July 31, 2023 Global

The Integrated Care Workforce: What does it Need? Who does it Take?

The health and care workforce was under pressure long before the pandemic due to the development of new technologies, recurring policy reforms and dwindling ressources. It has though taken the outcry in the aftermath of COVID-19 for researchers and policymakers to realise that something fundamental needs to change. In the integrated care literature and in this journal, the fact that integrated care implementation does not work without the involvement and support of the workforce has been a recurring theme, but also little heeded. Concepts like the Quadruple Aim or the WHO European Framework for Action for integrated health services delivery ...

Read more
July 24, 2023 Global

Towards applying the essential public health functions for building health systems resilience: A renewed list and key enablers for operationalization

The COVID-19 pandemic, climate change-related events, protracted conflicts, economic stressors and other health challenges, call for strong public health orientation and leadership in health system strengthening and policies. Applying the essential public health functions (EPHFs) represents a holistic operational approach to public health, which is considered to be an integrated, sustainable, and cost-effective means for supporting universal health coverage, health security and improved population health and wellbeing. As a core component of the Primary Health Care (PHC) Operational Framework, EPHFs also support the continuum of health services from health promotion and protection, disease prevention to treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative services ...

Read more
July 10, 2023 Global

Universal health coverage is a matter of equity, rights, and justice

The Coalition of Partnerships for Universal Health Coverage and Global Health calls on all countries to urgently reinvigorate progress towards health for all.

At the High Level Political Forum in July and the three UN High-level meetings on health, upcoming in September, 2023, all countries must recognise that progress in providing tuberculosis care, strengthening pandemic preparedness, and delivering the human right to health through universal health coverage are interrelated goals, requiring a concerted focus on the most vulnerable and marginalised populations.

Read more
July 3, 2023 Global

Population health management in primary health care: a proactive approach to improve health and well-being: primary heath care policy paper series

Overview

Population health management can play a critical role in strengthening primary health care (PHC) by providing a data-driven, people-centred and proactive approach to managing the health and well-being of a defined population. By identifying subgroups with similar characteristics and needs, population health management can enable PHC providers to move from a one-size-fits-all approach to targeted and tailored interventions that account for the needs of different groups and individuals. By focusing on the social determinants of health and psychosocial needs, population health management can help PHC providers in adopting a holistic and proportionate universalism approach to address health inequalities at ...

Read more