Advancing tailored PHC services that meet individual and community needs

People access health care throughout their life, for a continuum of services that promote, prevent, diagnose, treat, rehabilitate or provide palliative care for a range of needs. In fact, 80-90 percent of care that people seek over their lifetime is delivered through primary health care, however in some settings service tends to focus on more on curative care and less on health promotion and prevention. At PATH, we specialize in transforming primary health care to better serve the whole person’s health needs throughout their life. We help country partners to achieve this by putting people at the center, adopting person-centered technologies and approaches, and supporting the delivery of tailored and integrated essential health services through multi-disciplinary teams.

Designing interventions that work requires understanding people’s needs and desires. At PATH, we investigate when, where, and how people access health care services, what influences their decision making, and the policies and financing that regulate access. This includes a nuanced understanding of how gender and sexual diversity, race, ability, age and other factors may impact access to and uptake of health care and how these institutional and barriers need to be addressed through diversity, equity and inclusion to promote health for all. We utilize tools like behavioral science and human-centered design to identify barriers—real and perceived—to primary health care services, including tailored screening for risk factors, understanding hesitancy and fostering uptake of the COVID-19 vaccines, and characterizing nuanced preferences for packaging and delivery of oral PrEP among adolescent girls and young women. among adolescent girls and young women.

PATH partners with private sector providers like pharmacy stores, clinics and e-commerce to expand access to innovative self-care products and self-testing options for HIV, TB, family planning, diabetes, hypertension, sexually transmitted infections, viral hepatitis, mental health, COVID-19 and some cancers. By expanding testing options, individuals and communities are offered easy-to-access, fast, and confidential pathways to treatment and management. This is one of PATH’s key approaches for optimizing access to care.

Our goal is evidence-based, equitable, accessible, and high quality PHC that realizes health for all. Leveraging partnerships with the public and private sector, and communities, as well as our vast experience and deep health area expertise, we help strengthen health systems that expand access to integrated care for all people.

Additional Resources

• Using Behavioral Science and Human Centered Design to Boost COVID-19 Vaccination: Insights and Strategic Interventions
• HIV Self-Testing: Increasing access by optimizing quality, choice, and convenience
• Assessment of the integration of postpartum depression screening and counseling into primary health care in Mozambique
• Let’s Talk About Mental Health: Integrating care for depression, anxiety, and substance use as a part of HIV services in Vietnam