The focus of the Better NCD Care Initiative is to expand equitable access to integrated and comprehensive services for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) by accelerating actions in Primary Health Care (PHC).
To support its implementation, six strategic areas are proposed, which are integrated according to the local context, the available teams, resources, and coordination across levels of care to ensure comprehensive, integrated, and continuous care for the community and individuals living with NCDs.
Strategic Line 4 of the Initiative promotes the development of primary health care teams for better NCD care.
This strategic line emphasizes the importance of having interprofessional PHC teams that are adequately trained to provide optimal care for NCDs.
What are interprofessional PHC teams and why are they needed?
Interprofessional PHC teams are composed of diverse health professionals and workers with various occupations and levels of training, including administrative staff, decision-makers, and community health workers.
These individuals share a team identity and work together in an integrated and interdependent manner to solve complex health problems and provide the necessary and appropriate health services within local contexts.
Learning Pathway for the Better NCD Care Initiative – Accelerating Actions in PHC.
To support the development of PHC teams in caring for people and communities with NCDs, a Learning Pathway (LP) has been developed.
A Learning Pathway is a structured journey comprising a set of planned learning actions—such as courses, workshops, seminars, webinars, communities of practice, among others—aligned with the development of competencies required for a specific professional field.
The Learning Pathway aligns with the three goals of the Initiative to promote the development of appropriate health teams for its implementation, based on the following three competency clusters:
CLINICAL FOLLOW-UP COMPETENCIES
Goal: Strengthen the clinical competencies of multidisciplinary health teams by promoting collaborative work and coordination of tasks within the team, to improve the diagnosis and treatment of major NCDs.
PUBLIC HEALTH PROGRAM MANAGEMENT COMPETENCIES
Goal: To train health administrators in the specificities of NCDs in terms of service organization, delivery, quality improvement, and the management of medicines and technologies.
DATA MONITORING COMPETENCIES
Goal: To improve the skills and competencies of health providers in the specificities of NCDs related to health information systems at the facility level, and to patient outcomes monitoring.
Target Audience of the Better NCD Care Learning Pathway
- Interprofessional primary health care teams
- Health service managers and decision-makers
Explore the Better NCD Care Learning Pathway
This Learning Pathway begins with the course Better NCD Care: Accelerating Actions in PHC, which introduces the foundational concepts of the Initiative and supports both decision-makers and health teams in its implementation.
