At the APHA Annual Meeting
Monday, Oct. 31, 2011, 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Grand Hyatt, Independence Ballroom H
Today, Dr. Barbara Starfield is best known for the stunning re-emergence of primary care that has produced demonstration programs in nearly every state in the country. But for many years, pediatrician Dr. Barbara Starfield was one of the few people doing research on children’s health services and tackling the question of how to reduce inequalities in child health. Her work on this subject was also groundbreaking. Dr. Starfield and her work will be remembered at the annual Health Services Research update session held late Monday afternoon (4:30) at the Grand Hyatt. This event will present a unique opportunity to hear from people who collaborated closely with her and know her work well.
Dr. Starfield served on the Institute of Medicine Committee that published Children’s Health, the Nation’s Wealth in 2004. Pediatrician Christopher Forrest will speak of the seminal work she did to conceptualize children’s health and health outcomes, which had a formative influence on how we think about care for all children. Her work stimulated a broader, person-oriented view of the child that led to the IOM Report.
Martin Sepulveda, MD, from IBM will describe the impact her later work had on private sector employers in generating support for a health system that rests on a strong primary care foundation. She compared countries of the world for their health outcomes including patient satisfaction and their primary care attributes. Countries with better primary care systems had better outcomes and better satisfaction at lower costs. Dynamic leaders have taken that message and are instigating change.
Dr. Leihu Shi worked with Dr. Starfield for many years at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she chaired the Department of Health Policy and Management. He will talk about his collaborations with her over the years.
Many who share an interest in child health services and/or primary care health services recognize Barbara Starfield as a groundbreaking founder in those fields. She passed away this past summer in the eighth decade of her extraordinary life, at the age of 79.