Primary care in the Asia-Pacific region: challenges and solutions

Regional diversity Geographically large and home to a substantial proportion of the world’s population, the region includes substantial diversity in culture, language, economic maturation and demography. Most nations share problems such as ageing populations, increasing complexity of disease, workforce shortages, a need for increasing technology and accelerating costs. Some project substantial growth in middle class affluence and aspiration, which are major drivers of demand for improved quality. Some still struggle with high child mortality and infectious disease prevalence, particularly with Malaria and Dengue fever. While some show potential to be the economic powerhouses of the near future, a few have substantial poverty, sometimes related to civil warfare and terrorism. Yet these health issues are managed by diverse health care systems, with different proportions of primary, secondary and tertiary care, access to health care and funding models. The Asia-Pacific region shares with the rest of the world the challenges of allocating health care resources to achieve efficiently an increase in the quality of health care. In a sense the region has the potential to be a fascinating laboratory for comparing just how the shared challenges can be managed.