The importance of primary healthcare cannot be overstated. Its role in prevention, early detection and early treatment of disease, leading to better health outcomes and prevention of large financial outflow at later stages of disease discovery and treatment, is well established. This was underlined in the last two and a half years, where the pandemic reminded us that the primary care system is the first line of defence and has a simultaneous ongoing role in providing routine and essential health services.
In many parts of the world, primary healthcare remains reactive and fragmented, diluting its ability to serve as a strong foundation of the health system. Countries across the world, as also India, have attempted to address this as part of broader health system reforms, through bringing in a proactive approach to primary healthcare, integrating it with higher levels of service. As part of the Health System Dialogues, this discussion is a cross country sharing and distillation of insights on strengthening primary healthcare systems.

Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_E-Z-nY1wT3eYreSwnZBo-w

Vinod Paul: Dr. Vinod Paul is a globally recognised medical scientist and a public health exponent. He is currently Member of the National Institution for Transforming India, the NITI Aayog, where he leads the Health, Nutrition and Education verticals. He has played a pivotal role in formulating the Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY, the Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centre Scheme and POSHAN Abhiyaan. Dr. Paul is a member of the core team of the Government of India for COVID-19 pandemic response and chairs the Empowered Group on Emergency Management Plan and Strategy, Empowered Group on Vaccination, the National Task Force on COVID-19 as well as the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC). He previously served on the faculty of the Department of Paediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, from 1985 to 2020, and was Head of the Department for nearly a decade. Dr. Paul also served as the Chairman of The Board of Governors in supersession of the Medical Council of India in 2018-20.

Sujatha Rao: Sujatha Rao is a former Union Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. Of her 36 years’ service as a civil servant, she spent 20 years in the health sector at the state and federal levels. Ms. Rao represented India in the Boards of the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM), WHO and UNAIDS and was a member of the 6 Member Global Advisory Panel of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She is also a founding member of the Public Health Foundation of India, Member of the Advisory Board of the Ministerial Leadership Program of the Harvard School of Public Health, Member of the High Level Panel on Global Risk Framework of the National Academy of Sciences, USA and Trustee of Population Council, USA. She also served on the board of BSNL. Currently, she is Board Member of PRITHVI Asset Reconstruction Company and member of Boards of NGOs. Among her other commitments, she is also Commissioner of the Lancet Citizens’ Commission on Reimagining India’s Health System – centred around introducing Universal Health Coverage.

Rifat Atun: Dr. Rifat Atun is Professor of Global Health Systems at Harvard University, the Faculty Chair of the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program, and the Director of Health Systems Innovation Lab. From 2008-12, he was a member of the Executive Management at the Global Fund as Director of Strategy. He is a visiting professor at University of Kyoto, Japan. His research extends globally and focuses on health system performance, health system transformation and innovation. He has published more than 400 papers in leading journals, and in 2020 and 2021 was recognised by the Web of Science as one of the World’s Highly Cited Researchers.

Erno Harzheim: Erno Harzheim is Professor in the Department of Social Medicine at the Medical School of Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and the Graduate Program in Epidemiology at the same institution. He has played multiple roles in the Ministry of Health, Brazil. As Secretary of Primary Health Care, he led the Primary Care Reform in the country, which includes the expansion of primary care teams. Other roles included Secretary of Strategic and Participative Management and Deputy Executive Secretary, both in the Ministry of Health. He has published more than sixty scientific papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals in Brazil and abroad on topics in medicine, health research and management, with a specific focus on primary healthcare. Between 2007 and 2017, he led a research center which aims to improve the quality of primary health care in the Unified Health System (SUS) through telemedicine technologies and innovations.

Sandhya Venkateswaran: Sandhya Venkateswaran is a Senior Fellow at Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) and leads the Human Development work at CSEP, with a specific focus on Health Policy. In a career spanning over three decades, she has worked on a wide range of issues in the social sector across health, nutrition, gender, natural resources, urban development and others, and has authored books, multiple articles and other publications on varied social sector issues. Over the last 15 years her focus has been on policy issues, developing and leading the policy and advocacy portfolio in organisations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition and CARE. She has worked with grassroots campaigns and civil society organisations, as well as with government and international organisations. She is currently a member of the Lancet Citizens’ Commission on Reimagining India’s Health System.

For media related enquiries, please reach out to Malvika Sharad at msharad@csep.org.