Q&A: Primary Care Collaborative conference will spotlight efforts to strengthen the field

This year’s Primary Care Collaborative Annual Conference will be held in person from Dec. 14 to 15 in Washington, D.C.

The conference provides a platform for leaders to discuss efforts toward strengthening primary care by implementing recommendations from a recent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) report.

Primary Care Collaborative President and CEO Ann Greiner, MCP, talked to Healio about the conference’s goals, what events she is looking forward to, and how attendees can prepare to fully participate with their peers.

Healio: What are your goals for the conference?

Greiner: The goals of the conference are to highlight leaders from both the public and the private sectors who are moving forward to strengthen primary care by implementing the recommendations in the [NASEM] report.

Those span a lot of different domains — payment, access, care delivery, technology and measurement. We’re going to have speakers on each topic, and really be able to underscore all the ways that the community is coming together around those recommendations.

Healio: Is there anything you’re particularly excited about?

Greiner: I’m excited about a lot of the things that are going on in terms of digital innovation to support primary care. We have a terrific speaker, Aneesh Chopra, MPP. He was formerly the chief technology officer for the White House. I think he’s going to be incredibly inspirational. And then we’re going to have innovators who are part of an innovation bazaar, both on the technology side and the payment side, who participants in the conference can go speak with and learn more about how they’re strengthening and reinventing primary care.

Another is just all of the ways in which innovators are changing how we pay primary care and how much we pay primary care, and that’s important because they’re better able to improve patient health, reduce inequities in care, and begin to bend the cost curve. Payment is such a critical lever to reinventing primary care. Speakers on this topic include Doug Jacobs, MD, MPH, the chief innovations officer at CMS; Elizabeth Mitchell, president and CEO of the Purchaser Business Group on Health; and others.

Healio: What do you hope attendees will take away from the conference?

Greiner: I hope they take away a sense of excitement about what’s possible, some practical advice about how to go about implementing such changes, that they’re not alone — that there’s a whole community of people who are working to try and transform primary care and having success — and that we’re coming together for the work ahead in 2023, 2024 and beyond.

Healio: Is there anything you would recommend to help attendees prepare?

Greiner: There are summaries of all the major recommendations in the [NASEM] report, and they’re available for free on the NASEM website. I’d take a look at those recommendations, see how much you agree with them and come prepared to fully partake in the conversation. If you are one of the leaders who’s helping to put those recommendations into place, join us so that the community can learn from you and vice versa.