Date: October 14, 2009 (Wednesday)
Time: 12:30 – 14:00 (sandwich lunch from 12:30 –12:45; seminar begins at 12:45)
Venue: Seminar Room 5, LG/1-F, Laboratory Block, Faculty of Medicine Building, 21 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong

Abstract:

The nature of illness is changing rapidly. Although the basis of disease classifications have not changed substantially over the past century, disease is now characterized by multiple vulnerability to a wide variety of illnesses that manifests as multimorbidity. Because of the complexity of illness 'causation', it is no longer useful to focus on single causes or single solutions to health concerns. The important role played by societal characteristics and policies demands a greater role of public health in preventive activities. Primary Care, for its part, has a critical role in reducing suffering and enhancing potential for normal life expectancy and improved functioning. This reality, now supported by two decades of concerted research on primary care, changes the imperative of health systems from vertical, disease-by-disease efforts to horizontally oriented, comprehensive, person and population focused care over time.

Bio-sketch:

Professor Barbara Starfield, a physician and health services researcher, is university distinguished professor and professor of health policy and pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University. She is internationally known for her work in primary care; her books, Primary Care: Concept, Evaluation, and Policy and Primary Care: Balancing Health Needs, Services, and Technology, are widely recognized as the seminal works in the field. She has been instrumental in leading projects to develop important methodological tools, including the Primary Care Assessment Tool, the CHIP tools (to assess adolescent and child health status), and the Johns Hopkins Adjusted Clinical Groups (ACGs) for assessment of diagnosed morbidity burdens reflecting degrees of co-morbidity. She was the co-founder and first president of the International Society for Equity in Health, a scientific organization devoted to furthering knowledge about the determinants of inequity in health and ways to eliminate them. Her work thus focuses on quality of care, health status assessment, primary care evaluation, and equity in health. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine and has been on its governing council, and has been a member of the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics and many other government and professional committees and groups. She has a BA from Swarthmore College, an MD from the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, and an MPH from Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health.

Presentation file