Capacity building and the practice of community oriented primary care (COPC) - The case of Catalonia, Spain and Washington DC, USA

Community Oriented Primary Care (COPC) requires the integration of medicine and public health. Consequently there is need for relevant training of human resources in both disciplines.

A capacity building process in COPC has been in place in Catalonia-Spain since 1987. This was followed later on by the introduction of COPC curricula in the Family and Community Medicine Residency Program of Spain. The initiation and current development of the COPC practices in 34 health centers in Catalonia was possible by the participation of trained professionals and facilitated by the regional health reform. Recently these health centers have created the Network of Community Oriented Health Centers in the Region. This Network is in charge of the capacity building and continuous education.

This experience was considered by the George Washington University in Washington DC for the development of training programs for general practitioners. This training was followed by the creation of the Master of Public Health COPC Track in the School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS) of The George Washington University. The School is now developing activities related to COPC practice, consultancy and networking. SPHHS provides consultation to 8 US cities on the reduction of health disparities in Hispanic Elderly through a COPC framework.

In this presentation we will analyze 1) the relevance of COPC to specific health systems, 2) role of academic and/or professional supporting frameworks, 3) field training of an approach that has social justice as an implicit aim, and 4) challenges applying COPC in a fragmented system.