abstract: 'Background: Research consistently shows that gaps in health and health

  care persist, and are even widening. While the strength of a country''s

  primary health care system and its primary care attributes significantly

  improves populations'' health and reduces inequity (differences in health

  and health care that are unfair and unjust), many areas, such as

  inequity reduction through the provision of health promotion and

  preventive services, are not explicitly addressed by general practice.

  Substantiating the role of primary care in reducing inequity as well as

  establishing educational training programs geared towards health

  inequity reduction and improvement of the health and health care of

  underserved populations are needed.

  Methods: This paper summarizes the work performed at the World WONCA

  (World Organization of National Colleges and Academies of Family

  Medicine) 2013 Meetings'' Health Equity Workshop which aimed to explore

  how a better understanding of health inequities could enable primary

  care providers (PCPs)/general practitioners (GPs) to adopt strategies

  that could improve health outcomes through the delivery of primary

  health care. It explored the development of a health equity curriculum

  and opened a discussion on the future and potential impact of health

  equity training among GPs.

  Results: A survey completed by workshop participants on the current and

  expected levels of primary care participation in various inequity

  reduction activities showed that promoting access (availability and

  coverage) to primary care services was the most important priority.

  Assessment of the gaps between current and preferred priorities showed

  that to bridge expectations and actual performance, the following should

  be the focus of governments and health care systems: forming

  cross-national collaborations; incorporating health equity and cultural

  competency training in medical education; and, engaging in initiation of

  advocacy programs that involve major stakeholders in equity promotion

  policy making as well as promoting research on health equity.

  Conclusions: This workshop formed the basis for the establishment of

  WONCA''s Health Equity Special Interest Group, set up in early 2014,

  aiming to bring the essential experience, skills and perspective of

  interested GPs around the world to address differences in health that

  are unfair, unjust, unnecessary but avoidable.'
affiliation: 'Shadmi, E (Corresponding Author), Univ Haifa, Fac Social Welf \& Hlth
  Sci, IL-31999 Haifa, Israel.

  Shadmi, Efrat, Univ Haifa, Fac Social Welf \& Hlth Sci, IL-31999 Haifa, Israel.

  Wong, William C. W., Univ Hong Kong, Dept Family Med \& Primary Care, Pokfulam,
  Hong Kong, Peoples R China.

  Kinder, Karen, Johns Hopkins Univ, ACG Int, Baltimore, MD 21218 USA.

  Heath, Iona, Royal Coll Gen Practitioners, London, England.

  Kidd, Michael, Flinders Med Sch, WONCA, Bedford Pk, SA 5042, Australia.'
article-number: '104'
author: Shadmi, Efrat and Wong, William C. W. and Kinder, Karen and Heath, Iona and
  Kidd, Michael
author-email: eshadmi@univ.haifa.ac.il
author_list:
- family: Shadmi
  given: Efrat
- family: Wong
  given: William C. W.
- family: Kinder
  given: Karen
- family: Heath
  given: Iona
- family: Kidd
  given: Michael
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1186/s12939-014-0104-4
files: []
issn: 1475-9276
journal: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR EQUITY IN HEALTH
keywords: Health equity; Disparities; Primary care
keywords-plus: 'PHYSICIAN-CITIZENS; POPULATION HEALTH; INCOME INEQUALITY; DISPARITIES;

  SYSTEMS; EUROPE; POLICY; ORGANIZATION; COUNTRIES; MORTALITY'
language: English
month: NOV 7
number-of-cited-references: '29'
orcid-numbers: Shadmi, Efrat/0000-0001-9752-5724
papis_id: 5a364121be85cec5d1d58ae4ea06949e
ref: Shadmi2014primarycare
times-cited: '8'
title: 'Primary care priorities in addressing health equity: summary of the WONCA
  2013 health equity workshop'
type: article
unique-id: WOS:000346942200001
usage-count-last-180-days: '2'
usage-count-since-2013: '21'
volume: '13'
web-of-science-categories: Public, Environmental \& Occupational Health
year: '2014'