Dr Bernal-Pulido is Professor of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at Rosario University in Bogotá, and member of the National Intersectoral Commission of Human Resources for Health of Colombia.
He is a public health and family physician with more than 20 years of clinical and managerial experience in primary healthcare (PHC) services in Colombia, particularly serving marginalised communities, internally displaced persons, and patients with non-communicable diseases (NCDs). He has been involved in health promotion and community building programmes with vulnerable, aboriginal, and migrant populations in Sydney (Australia) and Bogotá.
His expertise extends to the field of immunisations, leading clinical teams and conducting epidemiological and clinical studies in Latin and North America, for the development of vaccines to prevent and control the Dengue, Zika, C. difficile and Genital Herpes.
He worked at the Colombian Ministry of Health (MoH) as National Director of Human Resources for Health (HRH), where he contributed to policy design and the strengthening of the health workforce, PHC and the overall healthcare system. He was part of the National Public Health Committee that prepared and implemented the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the MoH designated leader, he joined the Primary Health Care Performance Initiative (PHCPI), and under this initiative, he has been consultant for the World Bank in Colombia, El Salvador, and Ghana, contributing to PHC positioning, measurement, and knowledge exchange. He has also been consultant for the Results for Development Institute as expert technical facilitator of a PHCPI international community of practice with the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage, and consultant for Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and USAID to strengthening PHC and HRH in Colombia.
He has held various academic positions in Colombian universities, accumulating 18 years of teaching experience at several schools of medicine in undergraduate and graduate programmes. Several papers have been published related to his work experience.
As countries around the world try to ensure universal health coverage as a way to achieve health-related sustainable development goals, the international community is now more than ever called to strengthening primary healthcare (PHC) systems as a proved strategy to ensure health systems’ sustainability, and health and social equity. It has a high potential to improve wellness and health outcomes across borders, meeting the population health needs.
In this direction, robust PHC state policies with intersectoral approaches are urgently needed. Mobilisation of different sources of funding to increase investment in PHC, particularly in low-and-middle-income countries, and innovations on population-based PHC funding arrangements should be prioritised to use available resources most effectively, in alignment with innovation in service delivery, team-care organisation and PHC management. Thus, primary care networks emerge as a good example. This should be supported by technology and strong information systems that allow continuous health needs surveillance and PHC performance measurement, in parallel to decision-making supportive systems.
Accessibility, comprehensiveness, and quality of care in PHC are challenges that demand global action to ensure appropriate prevention and care to patients with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and communicable diseases, particularly in marginalised and migrant populations. Greater efforts to integrate public health actions, PHC interventions, and traditional community practices in health, from a holistic, promotive, and preventive approach are also required, transitioning from a disease-driven to salutogenic-people centered-culturally appropriate and participatory models of care, with family and community orientation, to effectively tackle the social determinants of health.
Finally, there are plenty of global opportunities to reach consensus on core curricula, training needs and permanent development of the PHC workforce, to properly respond to the PHC systems demands, as well as opportunities to increase the evidence on what works better in PHC, with a focus on implementation research.
