WHO Regional Office for Europe meeting on strengthening primary care contribution to the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases

WHO/Europe is developing a new framework instrument to assess how effectively non-communicable diseases are managed in primary care, in collaboration with the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research.

WHO/Europe presented a draft report on the issue – giving an overview of the available evidence and views expressed in international policy papers, and describing the first steps in developing such an instrument – at a meeting in Amsterdam, the Netherlands on 25–26 January 2012. At the meeting, representatives of 37 Member States in the WHO European Region discussed their experience with tackling non-communicable diseases and ways to further develop the tool.

The instrument aims to assess primary-care performance and gaps in relation to health promotion and the prevention, management and care of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus. It focuses on evidence-based interventions that can be used in primary-care settings throughout a person’s lifetime.