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Primary Care Without Borders: Global Lessons for Local Action | 
Please note that this course will not be offered in 2026. We would be happy to suggest alternative courses that may align with your interests.
Primary health care (PHC) is a cornerstone of health equity, yet sustaining it remains particularly challenging in resource-constrained, disaster-prone, and crisis-affected settings. This four-day online course explores how chronic disease prevention and management can be maintained under pressure through multidisciplinary service delivery models, adaptive health workforces, and meaningful community engagement.
DESCRIPTION
This four-day online course explores how primary health care systems can sustain chronic disease prevention and management in resource-constrained, disaster-prone, and crisis-affected settings. Beginning with a systems-level overview, participants examine the foundations of primary health care and health equity, and analyze how external crises—such as conflict, displacement, climate events, and demographic shifts—intersect with workforce shortages, financing constraints, and rising non-communicable disease burdens.
The course then focuses on practical innovations for delivering chronic disease care under pressure, including task shifting, team-based models, digital and hybrid care, and mobile or pop-up primary care services. Through expert panels, case studies, and a World Café format, participants compare the advantages and limitations of these approaches across diverse contexts.
Subsequent sessions emphasize community-based and culturally safe primary care systems, highlighting community engagement strategies and the critical role of community health workers in supporting continuity of care for marginalized and displaced populations. The course concludes with applied design sessions in which participants translate global lessons into locally relevant action plans, incorporating workforce planning, community partnerships, monitoring mechanisms, and equity considerations.
Throughout the course, interactive discussions, small-group work, and peer feedback support practical learning and reflection, enabling participants to leave with concrete strategies they can adapt and apply in their own professional settings.
COURSE DIRECTORS
Alayne M. Adams, PhD
Associate Professor and Global Health Program Director
Department of Family Medicine | Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
Baijayanta Mukhopadhyay, MA MDCM CCFP DTMH
Institute of Health Sciences Education
Department of Family Medicine | Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
OBJECTIVES
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Explain how primary health care (PHC) advances health equity and how chronic disease burdens interact with conflict, disaster, displacement, and health system strain.
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Analyze context- and system-level factors (workforce, financing, supply chains, data systems, and social determinants) that disrupt or enable continuity of chronic disease prevention and management in crisis-affected and resource-constrained settings.
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Apply practical, evidence-informed strategies to maintain chronic disease care under pressure, including simplified clinical pathways, team-based/task-shifted models, community-engaged approaches, and low-tech digital or hybrid care tools.
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Evaluate and adapt innovations for local implementation, explicitly considering feasibility, acceptability, cultural safety, and equity impacts.
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Develop a concise local action plan to strengthen PHC resilience for chronic disease care, incorporating structured peer/faculty feedback.
TARGET AUDIENCE
Designed for clinicians, researchers, practitioners, and students, the course fosters global–local dialogue and applied learning, drawing on real-world experiences from diverse health systems. Participants will examine how primary care can remain resilient, inclusive, and responsive in the face of conflict, displacement, disasters, and systemic constraints.