On June 11th, 2007, the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative held a successful conference in Washington, DC, with participants coming from across the nation to discuss various aspects of the current state of our national health care system, and the potential remedy of a patient centered primary care model. During the conference, the speakers helped us define primary care, its strengths in comparison to the current system, auxiliary components necessary to create a primary care model, and practical efforts that are already making use of primary care in the U.S.

Johns Hopkins University Professor Barbara Starfield, defines primary care as "the provision of first contact, person-focused ongoing care over time that the health-related needs of people, referring only those too uncommon to maintain competence, and coordinate care when people receive services at other levels of care." Starfield explained how the strengths of focusing upon these first contact physicians is that they are in the unique position of being able to care for the “whole person” instead of focusing narrowly upon a single aspect of care.

Professor Starfield and other speakers, such as Dr. Edison Machado of Bridges to Excellence, noted the strength of primary care lay within the resulting improvements to health care quality. Due to the nature of our health care system, establishing a primary care model would require the utilization of related components. These include health information technology, creating a means to qualify primary care practices, and restructuring the payment framework for physicians. Presenters on these topics ranged from Dr. David Dale, President of the American College of Physicians, and Dr. Rick Kellerman, President of the American Academy of Family Physicians, to Dr. Bob Berenson, a Senior Fellow at the Urban Institute, and Phyllis Torda, Executive Vice President of the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

In addition, private sector representatives discussed the practical applications of primary care across the nation. Chris Nohrden of IBM discussed their up and coming pilot program at their Austin, Texas facilities. Theresa Helle of Boeing and Dr. Rushika Fernadopulle of Renaissance Health discussed the early outcomes and structure of their joint health care pilot located in the Seattle area. Finally, Dr. Ted Eytan presented the work of the Group Health Cooperative, located throughout Washington State, and their twenty plus years of experience in utilizing a very successful primary care model.