Primary health care research & development最新文献

{"title":"The healthcare experiences of rural-living Canadians with and without a primary care provider: a qualitative analysis of open-ended cross-sectional survey responses.","authors":"Kathy L Rush, Cherisse L Seaton, Lindsay Burton, Mindy A Smith, Eric P H Li","doi":"10.1017/S1463423624000677","DOIUrl":"10.1017/S1463423624000677","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Aim: </strong>This study aimed to explore healthcare experiences of rural-living patients both with (attached) and without (unattached) a local primary care provider.</p><p><strong>Background: </strong>Primary care providers serve a gatekeeping role in the Canadian healthcare system as the first contact for receiving many health services. With the shortage of primary care providers, especially in rural areas, there is a need to explore attached and unattached patient experiences when accessing healthcare.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A cross-sectional survey of rural patients both with (attached) and without (unattached) a primary care provider was conducted July-September 2022. An open-ended question gathered participants' thoughts and experiences with provider shortages.</p><p><strong>Findings: </strong>Overall, 523 (Mean age = 51 years, 75% female) rural British Columbia community members (306 attached; 217 unattached) completed the survey. Despite similar overall health, unattached patients received care less frequently overall compared to attached patients, including less frequent non-urgent and preventive care. The vast majority of attached patients sought care from a regular provider whereas unattached patients were more likely to use walk-in, emergency department, and urgent care and 29% did not seek care at all. Overall, 460 (88.0%) provided a response to the open-ended doctor shortage question. Similar themes were found among both attached and unattached participants and included: i) the ubiquity of the doctor shortage, ii) the precariousness or fluidity of attachment status, and iii) solutions and recommendations. Greater attention is needed on the negative and cyclical impacts provider shortages have for both attached and unattached patients alike.</p>","PeriodicalId":74493,"journal":{"name":"Primary health care research & development","volume":"26 ","pages":"e1"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11735112/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142933567","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Community pharmacist involvement in social prescribing for mental health: a qualitative study.","authors":"Denise A Taylor, Andrea D J Taylor, Matthew Jones, Hannah E Family","doi":"10.1017/S1463423624000409","DOIUrl":"10.1017/S1463423624000409","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Aim: </strong>We aimed to explore participant perspectives on social prescribing (SP) for mental health and well-being and the acceptability of community pharmacists (CP) as members of SP pathways that support people with mild to moderate depression and anxiety.</p><p><strong>Background: </strong>SP aims to support people with poor health related to socio-demographic determinants. Positive effects of SP on self-belief, mood, well-being, and health are well documented, including a return to work for long-term unemployed.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The study was set in a city in southwest England with diverse cultural and socio-demographics. We recruited SP stakeholders, including CP, to either one of 17 interviews or a focus group with nine members of the public.</p><p><strong>Findings: </strong>An inductive iterative approach to thematic analysis produced four superordinate themes: (1) offering choice a non-pharmacological option, (2) supporting pharmacy communities - 'it is an extension of what we do', (3) stakeholder perspectives - pharmacists are very busy and their expertise unknown by some, and (4) potential for pharmacy in primary care.Stakeholders viewed CP as local to and accessible by their community. Pharmacists perceived referral to SP services as part of their current role. General practitioner participants considered pharmacy involvement could reduce their workload and expand the primary healthcare team. Importantly, general practitioners and CP viewed SP as a non-pharmacological alternative to prescribing unnecessary antidepressants and reduce associated adverse effects. All participants voiced concerns about pharmacy dispensing busyness as a potential barrier to involvement and pharmacists requesting mental health training updates.Key findings suggest CP offer a potential alternative to the general practitioner for people with mild to moderate depression and anxiety seeking access to support and health information. However, CP need appropriately commissioned and funded involvement in SP, including backfill for ongoing dispensing, medicines optimization, and mental health first aid training.</p>","PeriodicalId":74493,"journal":{"name":"Primary health care research & development","volume":"25 ","pages":"e69"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11669795/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142866668","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Early detection efforts for colorectal and prostate cancer from the patient's perspective over the course of 12 years: results of the KABOT survey study.","authors":"Kay-Patrick Braun, Julia Maurer, Ingmar Wolff, Torsten Vogel, Steffen Lebentrau, Matthias May, Markus Herrmann","doi":"10.1017/S1463423624000653","DOIUrl":"10.1017/S1463423624000653","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Aim: </strong>This study investigates the level of knowledge and utilization of colorectal cancer (CRC) and prostate cancer (PCa) early detection measures (EDMs) over a period of 12 years in general practice from the patient's perspective.</p><p><strong>Background: </strong>The role of general practitioners (GPs) in EDMs for CRC and PCa in Germany is not well-documented with comprehensive data.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We conducted a patient-centric survey in the German federal state of Berlin-Brandenburg at a 12-year interval to examine the role of GPs in EDMs for CRC and PCa. In 2009, 55 GPs were tasked with informing 50 consecutive male patients, each aged over 35, about participating in a survey study (study phase 1/SP1). To evaluate changes over 12 years, a new survey involving 50 male patients from each of 150 GPs was conducted from October 2021 to March 2022 (SP2).</p><p><strong>Findings: </strong>We thoroughly reviewed the questionnaires of 890 patients, with 755 in SP1 and 135 in SP2. Patients showed greater awareness of recommendations regarding colonoscopy compared to prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing. GPs were the most frequently reported source of information for both EDMs in our cohort. Comparing the two study phases, no significant difference in specific awareness of colonoscopy or PSA testing was found among men eligible for EDMs. However, there was a notable increase in the role of health insurance companies as a source of information about colonoscopy over time. Nearly 60% of included patients underwent colonoscopy and/or PSA testing as EDMs.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The number of EDMs performed among study participants did not increase over time. Our study confirms that GPs remain the primary source of information about EDMs among the study participants.</p>","PeriodicalId":74493,"journal":{"name":"Primary health care research & development","volume":"25 ","pages":"e68"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11669801/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142830985","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How should policymakers, funders, and research teams mobilize to build the evidence base on universal early years services?","authors":"Katie Harron, Sally Kendall, Catherine Bunting, Rebecca Cassidy, Julie Atkins, Amanda Clery, Eirini-Christina Saloniki, Francesca Cavallaro, Helen Bedford, Louise Mc Grath-Lone, Mengyun Liu, Jenny Woodman","doi":"10.1017/S1463423624000550","DOIUrl":"10.1017/S1463423624000550","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Health visiting in England is a universal service that aims to promote the healthy development of children aged under five years and safeguard their welfare. We consulted stakeholders about their priorities for research into health visiting and also used these consultations and a literature review to generate a logic model. Parents wanted research to explore how health visiting teams can provide a caring, responsive, accessible service (the mechanisms of change). Policymakers, commissioners, and clinical service leads wanted descriptions and evaluations of currently implemented and 'gold standard' health visiting. The challenges to evaluating health visiting (data quality, defining the intervention, measuring appropriate outcomes, and estimating causal effects) mean that quasi-experimental studies that rely on administrative data will likely underestimate impact or even fail to detect impact where it exists. Prospective and experimental studies are needed to understand how health visiting influences infant-parent attachments, breastfeeding, childhood accidents, family nutrition, school readiness, and mental health and well-being.</p>","PeriodicalId":74493,"journal":{"name":"Primary health care research & development","volume":"25 ","pages":"e67"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11669806/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142803792","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A plan to transform primary and community care at Catalonia based on a process improvement methodology.","authors":"Marc Sales Coll, Sara Manjón, Jeroni Salabert, Clara Pladevall, Daniel Algar, Alba Benaque, Júlia Soler, Anna Ochoa de Echagüen Aguilar","doi":"10.1017/S1463423624000604","DOIUrl":"10.1017/S1463423624000604","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Aim: </strong>This article outlines the implementation and deployment strategy defined by the Catalan healthcare system which sought to promote a plan to strengthen and transform primary care in order to provide high-quality healthcare services whilst making an optimal use of resources across the Catalan region.</p><p><strong>Background: </strong>Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Catalan healthcare system initiated a plan to enhance primary care services. The Lean methodology has been used extensively in other sectors for process improvement. More recently, it has been adopted in large hospitals, showing good results, so Lean was selected as the most appropriate method to achieve this project's goal. The Process Office of the Catalan Health System, which is made up of experts in Lean methodology, has been involved in defining and deploying the strategy to all 374 Primary Care Teams (PCTs) within the Catalan healthcare system.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The deployment strategy was executed in four phases (each consisting of a number of sessions): (1) explaining the project's goals and training the professionals in the methodology; (2) assessing the current status regarding the processes with the various PCTs; (3) identifying and implementing improvement projects; and (4) defining key performance indicators to monitor the impact of the projects.</p><p><strong>Findings: </strong>As a conclusion, this project has allowed to successfully define and implement a standard at a strategic and deployment level of a project for primary care improvement that may be replicated in other regions. The key elements to ensure success have been the following: leadership, implementation of an improvement methodology, standardization of sessions, and involvement and training of front-line professionals.</p>","PeriodicalId":74493,"journal":{"name":"Primary health care research & development","volume":"25 ","pages":"e65"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11669815/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142775497","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Healthy ageing in long-term care? Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic: a position paper.","authors":"Frode F Jacobsen, Stinne Glasdam, Heidi Haukelien, Maria E T C van den Muijsenbergh, Gudmund Ågotnes","doi":"10.1017/S1463423624000598","DOIUrl":"10.1017/S1463423624000598","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aim: &lt;/strong&gt;This position paper focuses on healthy ageing for the frailest and institutionalized older adults in the context of the recent pandemic. The paper aims to identify and discuss hindering and promoting factors for healthy ageing in this context, taking both health safety and a meaningful social life into account, in a pandemic situation and beyond.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background: &lt;/strong&gt;The recent COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the vulnerability of frail older adults residing in long-term care institutions. This is a segment of the older population that does not seem to align well with the recent policy trend of healthy and active ageing. The need for healthy ageing in this population has been voiced by professionals and interest organizations alike, alluding to inadequate support systems during the pandemic, conditioned by both previous and newly emerging contextual factors. Supporting healthy ageing in older adults in nursing homes and other residential care settings calls for attending to meaningful social life as well as to disease control.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Methods: &lt;/strong&gt;Findings and early conclusions leading up to the position paper were presented with peer discussions involving healthcare professionals and researchers at two joint EFPC PRIMORE workshops 2021 and 2022, as well as other international research seminars on long-term care. The following aspects of long-term care and COVID-19 were systematically discussed in those events, with reference to relevant research literature: 1. Long-term care policies, 2. pre-COVID state of long-term care facilities and vulnerability to the pandemic, 3. factors influencing the extent of spread of infection in long-term care facilities, and 4. the challenge of balancing between strict measures for infection control and maintaining a meaningful social life for residents and their significant others.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Findings: &lt;/strong&gt;A policy shift towards ageing at home and supporting the healthiest of older adults seems to have had unwarranted effects both for frail older adults, their significant others, and professional care staff attending to their needs. Resulting insufficient investment in primary health care staff and in the built environment for frail older adults in nursing homes were detrimental both for the older adults living in nursing homes, their significant others, and staff. More investment in staff and in physical surroundings might improve the quality of care and the social life of older adults in nursing homes in a non-pandemic situation and be a resource for primary health care staff ensuring both protection from health hazards and a meaningful social life for frail older adults in a pandemic or epidemic situation. As for investing in the physical surroundings, smaller nursing homes are advantageous, with singular resident rooms and for developing out-and indoor spaces for socializing and for meeting with families and other visitors. Regarding investment in staf","PeriodicalId":74493,"journal":{"name":"Primary health care research & development","volume":"25 ","pages":"e66"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11669808/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142752606","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Early structured communication between general practitioner, sick-listed patient, and employer: Results and lessons learned from a pragmatic trial in the Capacity Note project.","authors":"Paula Nordling, Chioma Nwaru, Lena Nordeman, Ingmarie Skoglund, Maria E H Larsson, Cecilia Björkelund, Gunnel Hensing","doi":"10.1017/S1463423624000574","DOIUrl":"10.1017/S1463423624000574","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background and objective: </strong>Early and collaborative interventions are desirable to prevent long-term sick leave and promote sustainable return-to-work (RTW). The aim of this study was to evaluate if the use of the Capacity Note - a brief intervention promoting early and structured communication between general practitioners (GPs), patients, and employers - had an impact on length of sick leave in patients with common mental disorders (CMDs) in primary healthcare.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>In a pragmatic trial, GPs at eight primary healthcare centres were randomized to provide the intervention or control and recruited eligible patients: employed women and men, 18-64 years, who visited a GP due to CMD and became or were (<4 months) full- or part-time sick-listed. Patients in the intervention group (n=28) used the Capacity Note in addition to usual care. Patients in the control group (n=28) received usual care. Outcomes of interest were time until full RTW, sick leave status at end of follow-up (17 months), number of sick leave episodes during follow-up, and number of sick leave days at 6, 12, and 17 months of follow-up.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The proportion of patients with full RTW at the end of follow-up was 79.2% in the intervention group and 84.6% in the control group. Time until full RTW was 102 and 90 days (median) in intervention and control group, respectively. We found no statistically significant differences between the groups for any of the outcomes.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Despite efforts to increase the number of participants, the study ended up with a small sample. This prohibited us from drawing any final conclusions about the effect of the intervention. Obstacles to recruitment of patients and use of the intervention are discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":74493,"journal":{"name":"Primary health care research & development","volume":"25 ","pages":"e64"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11669804/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142741425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The impact of COVID-19 on referrals among general practitioners and specialists in Shanghai, China.","authors":"Zhongqing Xu, Jingchun Fan, Dandan Shi, Jingjing Ding, Jun Zhou, Xianzhen Feng, Brett D Hambly, Kun Tao, Shisan Bao","doi":"10.1017/S1463423624000525","DOIUrl":"10.1017/S1463423624000525","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted patient's visits to general practitioners (GPs). However, it is unclear what the impact of COVID-19 has been on the interaction among the local primary care clinics, the GP Department within the hospital and specialists.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The interaction among GPs referring to hospital-based specialists and specialists to local doctors was determined, comparing pre-pandemic 2019 and 2020 during the pandemic.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Reduced referrals from GPs to specialists were consistent with the reduction in specialist referrals back to the local doctors, which dropped by approximately 50% in 2020, particularly in the two most common chronic conditions (hypertension and diabetes mellitus).</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Reduced referral of patients from local clinics to Tongren Hospital is probably due to the extensive online training provided to the local GPs to become more competent in handling local patients via telehealth. Our data provide some insight to assist in combatting the pandemic of COVID-19, offering objective evidence of the impact of COVID-19 on patient management by GPs.</p>","PeriodicalId":74493,"journal":{"name":"Primary health care research & development","volume":"25 ","pages":"e63"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11669811/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142677739","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The unrevealed links: periodontal health, human milk composition, and infant gut microbiome dynamics.","authors":"Rana Badewy, Michael Glogauer, Kristin L Connor, Michael Sgro, Jim Yuan Lai, Richard P Bazinet, Howard C Tenenbaum, Amir Azarpazhooh","doi":"10.1017/S1463423624000215","DOIUrl":"10.1017/S1463423624000215","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Aim: </strong>This review aims to identify the mechanistic relationships related to periodontal diseases and its possible association with changes in human milk composition and the composition and function of infants' gut microbiome.</p><p><strong>Background: </strong>Maternal health conditions, especially inflammatory, are associated with altered human milk composition. It is <i>not</i> known whether maternal oral inflammatory diseases, including periodontal diseases, deleteriously affect human milk composition.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A narrative review was conducted according to SANRA, the Scale for the Assessment of Narrative Review Articles, guidelines. PubMed, Google Scholar, and Cochrane database of systematic reviews were searched from September 2019 up to December 2023 using keywords such as breast/human milk, maternal health/infections, and periodontal diseases. Reference lists of relevant articles were also screened. Our primary outcome of interest was human milk composition (i.e., any changes in macronutrients, immunological components, etc.). Secondary outcomes included changes in human milk microbiome and subsequent changes in the infant gut microbiome. Outcomes were synthesized using a narrative approach where the existing evidence and current literature were summarized. No risk of bias assessment of the studies was performed in this review.</p><p><strong>Findings: </strong>The search yielded no studies investigating the relationship between periodontal diseases in nursing mothers and changes in human milk composition. However, a dose-response relationship exists between the severity of periodontal diseases and the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes such as preterm birth. Mastitis and diabetes affected milk lipids. Immunoglobulin A (sIgA) was increased in mastitis, whereas reduced concentrations were reported in diabetes. Potential biological pathways through which periodontal diseases can negatively affect human milk composition include the systemic dissemination of inflammatory cytokines like IL-6, PGE2, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-β that can be up-regulated by bacterial by-products. This biological plausibility needs to be investigated, given the potentially negative impact on the quality of human milk that could be caused by periodontal inflammation.</p>","PeriodicalId":74493,"journal":{"name":"Primary health care research & development","volume":"25 ","pages":"e62"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11669817/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142633505","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Primary healthcare as a strategy for eliminating hepatitis C: the METRIC toolkit.","authors":"Ricardo Baptista-Leite, Henrique Lopes, Diogo Franco, Timo Clemens, Helmut Brand","doi":"10.1017/S1463423624000355","DOIUrl":"10.1017/S1463423624000355","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Aim: </strong>This paper presents the development of the METRIC toolkit, aimed at enhancing primary healthcare interventions in the context of hepatitis C control, thus contributing to the World Health Organization's global strategy to achieve the elimination of the disease by 2030.</p><p><strong>Background: </strong>At the global level, most people living with hepatitis C are unaware of their condition. As such, the eradication of hepatitis C necessitates comprehensive strategies within primary healthcare settings, as it provides an opportunity to reach the general population, facilitates the identification of potential patients who may be unfamiliar with hepatitis C, and guides them toward adequate care. Herein, we propose the METRIC toolkit as a means to optimize the efficiency and efficacy of healthcare services dedicated to hepatitis C control.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The development of the METRIC toolkit was guided by a thorough review of pertinent literature, focusing on primary healthcare interventions in hepatitis C control. Key components were identified, encompassing systematic problem identification, solution formulation, outcome evaluation, and feedback integration.</p><p><strong>Findings: </strong>The METRIC toolkit represents a valuable resource for strengthening primary healthcare interventions in hepatitis C control. By fostering a culture of continuous improvement and data-driven decision-making, this framework holds promise in advancing the global agenda towards hepatitis C elimination. However, its successful application requires careful consideration of contextual factors and ongoing adaptation to local needs and circumstances.</p>","PeriodicalId":74493,"journal":{"name":"Primary health care research & development","volume":"25 ","pages":"e61"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11569853/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142592069","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}