It is our pleasure to send you our Year in Review Report for the year 2021. The idea of the Besrour Centre for Global Family Medicine was born out of the tragedies of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur Sudan that began in 2003, the Banda Aceh tsunami in Indonesia in 2004 and the Haitian earthquake of 2010.
Since the official opening of the Besrour Centre in 2015, we have matured both as a discipline and as a centre. Today, not only do we advocate for family medicine and its role in improving patient care, but also for the models of care throughout the health system that are based on family medicine principles. Over the last six years, our focus has shifted from building family medicine capacity in low- and middle-income countries to studying and promoting family medicine-led models around the world.
The global COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the importance of our work. It continues to highlight that global problems require global solutions—it is not just an urgent moral issue, it’s a global public health issue. The pandemic also highlighted gaps in and between health systems around the world. Capacity has been stretched everywhere, revealing areas where access remains problematic, and where integration at the system level is still lacking. At the same time, it revealed incredible innovation and perseverance.
As the pandemic continues to vacillate between infectious and chronic impacts, improved integration and the adaptability of family medicine will be key in all health system contexts, including Canada. All of Besrour Centre’s initiatives are exploring or demonstrating how family doctors are leading at this time. Our collective journey highlights that capacity building takes time and determination. To continue this work, we need your ongoing engagement, partnership, and help. We are deeply appreciative of the funding provided by the Foundation for Advancing Family Medicine (FAFM) and all our partners that helps fuel our work. As always, we are indebted to Dr. Sadok Besrour for his vision and perennial support to build the Centre.
Together, we are a vibrant network of community-based leaders and partners that continue to learn from one another. Our collective effortsare strengthening family medicine-led models that are at the heart of health systems around the world and, in turn, improve equitable access to care.
Warm regards,
David Ponka, MD CM, CCFP(EM), FCFP, MSc
Director | Directeur
The Besrour Centre for Global Family Medicine | Le Centre Besrour pour la médecine familiale mondiale
The College of Family Physicians of Canada |
Le Collège des médecins de famille du Canada
1(905) 629-0900 ext | poste 398
dponka@cfpc.ca https://www.cfpc.ca/The_Besrour_Centre/
