Bridging public health and primary care for a healthier population

Primary care is where medicine meets public health. The health issues that drive people to primary care clinics, from high blood pressure to anxiety, are rooted in the complex social determinants that shape health on a population level. But both public health and primary care systems are routinely under-resourced, and struggle to meet the needs of the people they aim to serve. With rising rates of chronic disease and persistent health inequities in the United States, the need for a more coordinated, prevention-oriented approach to healthcare has never been more evident. 

“With the opening of the Bursky School of Public Health and the new Division of General Internal Medicine (where primary care sits) at WashU Medicine, WashU has made a commitment to building out primary care and academic public health at the same time,” said Margaret McNairy, MD, MSc, the David C. and Betty Farrell Professor of Medicine and the director of the Division of General Internal Medicine at WashU Medicine. “This convening is a way to start the dialogue about how to leverage our academic strengths in primary care and public health to exponentially make care better for St. Louis and the nation.”

On October 20, primary care clinicians, health system innovators, policymakers and public health researchers will gather at Washington University in St. Louis for a half-day convening to examine how primary care and public health can work together to build a more equitable and effective health system. The convening, titled “Primary Care & Public Health: Transforming Health Through Partnership,” is hosted by the Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky School of Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis, in collaboration with the Division of General Internal Medicine in the Department of Medicine at WashU Medicine. 

The event will take place from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Eric P. Newman Education Center (EPNEC) on the Washington University Medical Campus. All attendees and panelists are invited to a networking lunch from 12:30 to 2 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, in person or via Zoom. Registration is required.

The event will open with remarks by Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, the Margaret C. Ryan Dean of the Bursky School of Public Health, the Eugene S. and Constance Kahn Distinguished Professor in Public Health and vice provost for interdisciplinary initiatives at Washington University. 

The remarks will be followed by the first keynote address. Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH, the executive director of Ariadne Labs and an associate professor of medicine and health care policy at Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, will give a talk titled, “Building Integrated Systems in the U.S.: From Policy to Practice.” In the discussion that follows, panelists will explore how to build public health research infrastructure into primary care, and how primary care can function as a foundational platform for improving population health in the United States. 

“The primary care metrics in Missouri are not where they should be. Our maternal mortality rates are nearly twice the national average. Our cancer rates are high, too,” said McNairy, who is also a member of the Bursky School of Public Health secondary faculty. “How amazing would it be to build out a research network linking our primary care and community clinics with WashU researchers at the School of Medicine and the School of Public Health so we can do the really high impact clinical and implementation trials that change the way we think about care delivery for chronic disease and disease prevention?”

The second keynote address will be delivered by Andrea Cherrington, MD, MPH, a professor and the director of the Division of General Internal Medicine & Population Science at Heersink School of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Cherrington will speak on, “Promoting Health Equity Through Primary Care and Public Health Research and Training.” After the address, a panel will discuss policy and payment innovations shaping the future of care delivery, and how workforces and health systems can be redesigned to meet current and emerging health challenges.