Although primary care is the lifeline of a health care system, the United States spends less on it, and more on specialty care, than other high-income countries. This sends a message to our primary care workforce: we don't value what you do. The result? Burnout, high turnover, physician shortages—all of which were dire crises before the pandemic but are even worse now.
On the latest episode of The Dose, host Shanoor Seervai asks Asaf Bitton, M.D., executive director of the health innovation center Ariadne Labs, what it will take to rebuild the nation's broken primary care system.
"What we've learned over these last 15 or 20 years is that primary care is a team sport," says Bitton. A modern practice cares for a well-defined population using "technology in a different way… to start building a much more integrated primary care of the future."