A GP inside the WHO

Abstract

Over the last year, I have been fortunate enough to work at the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva. My work there involved developing strategies to help low- and middle-income countries address health inequalities, defined as the systematic and potentially remediable differences in one or more aspects of health across populations. I was fascinated to see that policy attempts to reduce health inequalities had been prioritized into two key areas: Primary Health Care and the Social Determinants of Health, areas of great relevance to general practice. The WHO has made two significant contributions to both these policy areas — the Commission on the Social Determinants of Health and the 2008 World Health Report on Primary Health Care. As a GP, I found myself reflecting on how these two policy areas relate to one another, and importantly how we, as GPs, can take action on the social determinants of health to strengthen primary health care.