National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Standing Committee on Primary Care: An Objective Venue to Inform Policy

Abstract

The 2021 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report Implementing High-Quality Primary Care: Rebuilding the Foundation of Health Care outlined an implementation framework with recommendations for federal, state, and local policy makers, health systems, educational institutions, the interprofessional workforce, and others across the health care ecosystem to ensure that high-quality primary care is available for everyone in the United States. Based on 1 of the report’s recommendations, the Department of Health and Human Services, in collaboration with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Agriculture, launched the Initiative to Strengthen Primary Health Care in 2021 to coordinate and prioritize primary care activities across the federal government. Formation of this federal coordinating body is a critical step for improving primary care in the US, but it is equally important to enable external primary care policy experts, researchers, and working clinicians to provide input on urgent primary care needs and priorities as primary care policy evolves. The newly launched NASEM Standing Committee on Primary Care will provide a venue for input that is independent, objective, and evidence-based to inform policy, spark progress and innovation, and confront challenging issues facing primary care today and in the future.