Transforming Short Term Team Effectiveness with an Evidence Based Approach to Community Health

Curative primary care is essential for at least 30% of our patient healthcare problems, and we must continue our efforts to provide and teach high quality curative services. However, if we wish to provide high quality, evidence-based care for the remaining 70%, integration of community health with primary care is essential- especially on the missions field. The integration of primary care and community health was one of the main themes of the 2008 WHO World Health Report which was devoted entirely to Primary Care: http://www.who.int/whr/2008/en/index.html This integration is also being promoted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the AMA for physicians in our country: Roadmaps for Clinical Practice. A Primer on Population-Based Medicine.-See AMA website: http://www.ama-assn.org/ The following will demonstrate how an evidence-based holistic health education program can be used to integrate primary care and community health evangelism at all levels of the WHO health care pyramid (Hospital, Clinic/Health Center, and Family/Community), in both rural and urban areas, and in developed as well as developing countries.

This session will review the missionary influence on WHO evidence-based international guidelines to achieve global development goals. Lack of implementation of these Biblically-based guidelines has resulted in a world-wide “Slow-Motion Disaster". The global epidemic of non-communicable diseases primarily due to obesity and smoking recently resulted in the second ever UN General Assembly on Health in its 67 year history; and, as reported by the UN "... constitutes one of the major challenges for development in the twenty-first century, which undermines social and economic development throughout the world and threatens the achievement of internationally agreed development goals.” As emphasized by the UN and WHO, the root cause of this impending worldwide health, economic, and development disaster is not medical and it cannot be resolved by doctors and nurses. For this is a Lifestyle problem, a problem of beliefs & values. It is a spiritual problem, and it will not be resolved until the Church reassumes its responsibilities for the holistic (mind, body, spirit ) health of its members, its community and its country. We will conclude by demonstrating how the local Church, regardless of size or resources, can begin to provide the evidence-based holistic health and healing necessary for true transformational development.