Archive
Perspectives in Primary Care features writing from practitioners, activists, and community members representing organizations, practices, and institutions across the United States and around the world.
Primary Care
Health Equity
Social Determinants of Health
COVID-19
Public Health
Value in Health Care
Reference
Improving Health Care Access by Meeting Patients Where They Are
Throughout the last two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified many existing inequities in health care and throughout society. CommunityHealth, a free health clinic in Chicago, saw its patients face these ...
Advocacy
Food Rx: A Prescription for Health Systems and Medical Education
It’s an overcast Tuesday morning in Scranton, Pennsylvania, as Mary walks into the outpatient clinic for her groceries. The warm air in the lobby feels like a pleasant welcome from the blistery snow outside, but it’s the words spaghetti squash and salmon—two of her favorite items the pharmacy provides—written on the whiteboard that make her smile. The dietician at the ...
Advocacy
The Divinity of Doula Care: A Framework for Understanding the Essential Care Providers Shaping Perinatal Outcomes
The term “doula” is the latest buzzword appearing everywhere, from social media and podcasts to federal and statewide legislation and health care policy. This popularity may be attributable to the recent increase of peer-reviewed research that demonstrates what has long been communal knowledge—that this ...
Reference
Cybersecurity and Health Care: How Hacking is Costing Lives
Sarah is a single mother with a family history of heart disease. One morning, she’s driving her son to soccer practice when she experiences sudden chest pain. Recognizing the signs of a heart attack, her son calls 911 and waits for an ambulance to arrive. Thankfully, one arrives quickly, but instead of taking Sarah to the hospital down the block, it takes her to one across town. Unfortunately, because of the delay, Sarah’s heart suffers irreversible damage.
Advocacy
Vaccine Rollout and the Great Divide: Communities of Color Deserve More from Our Health Care System
I remember getting this phone call from a friend and feeling helpless: I want my grandmother who lives in Boston to get vaccinated, but I don't have transportation to get her to one of the mass vaccination sites, and also I don't feel comfortable taking her out of her home. She is 90 years old with underlying conditions which places her in the high-risk category. ...
Primary Care
Community Health
Health Equity
COVID-19
Public Health
Activism
Trauma
Global Health
Sexual and Reproductive Health
Behavioral Health / Mental Health
Stories
Trauma-Informed, Holistic Health Care: A Journey from Patient to Advocate
PurpLE Health Foundation is a non-profit organization in New York City, which invests in the physical, mental, and financial health of survivors of gender-based violence. PurpLE Health Foundation’s signature program is its collaboration with
Primary Care
Health Equity
Health Policy
Public Health
Activism
Sexual and Reproductive Health
LGBTQIA+
Advocacy
Menstrual Justice Is a Matter of Health Equity: How to Fight Period Poverty and Stigma
While assisting patients in the Emergency Department (ED) one morning, I met a patient I’ll refer to as Mary. When I walked in, she was hunched over the edge of the bed, gripping her abdomen in distress. As I approached her, asking how I could make her more comfortable, she sat up slightly. She sounded ashamed as she opened up to me about not having access to menstrual products and unexpectedly starting her period while waiting in ...
Community Health
Health Equity
Social Determinants of Health
Public Health
Global Health
Behavioral Health / Mental Health
Advocacy
Whose Trauma? De-Colonizing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Refugee Mental Health Frameworks
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and trauma needs in the Arab region The unprecedented political violence that swept the Arab region in the last century, from the Nakba of the Palestinain people to the wars in Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Syria, and Yemen, have ...