Measuring Primary Health Care Performance
PHCPI develops tools that all stakeholders can use to pinpoint weaknesses in the primary health care system, and strategically direct resources to address them.
New ways of measuring primary health care.
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Second-generation Vital Signs Profile (Beta version)
View the beta version of a second-generation Vital Signs Profile (VSP) developed by the PHCPI partnership to continue helping people and countries visualize and act on primary health care data across their health system. This dashboard was designed to more closely align with and use the recommended sources from the landmark WHO-UNICEF Primary Health Care Measurement Framework and Indicators, while drawing extensively on PHCPI’s experience partnering with 30+ Trailblazer countries to develop the first-generation VSP. -
Explore the PHC digital hub
Introducing the PHC digital hub: a centralized place to explore, understand and take action on building blocks of strong primary health care, as adapted from the landmark WHO-UNICEF Primary health care measurement framework and indicators released in early 2022. -
Explore PHC data from Trailblazer countries
Numerous Trailblazer countries partnered with PHCPI to develop a Vital Signs Profile, which offers an actionable snapshot of PHC data from national surveys and global databases as well as data collected and reported by countries. -
Tools from the Primary Health Care Performance Initiative (A Reference Guide)
This report summarizes the tools and resources developed by the Primary Health Care Performance Initiative (PHCPI), and the groundbreaking progress that this partnership has made in understanding, measuring, and improving primary health care. -
Illuminating the Vital Signs of Strong Primary Health Care
At a pivotal moment for health systems everywhere, this 2021 report takes stock of what we have learned from the first 23 Vital Signs Profiles, each showing a country's unique fingerprint of strengths and weaknesses in primary health care. -
Primary health care measurement framework and indicators: monitoring health systems through a primary health care lens
PHCPI welcomed the landmark WHO-UNICEF Primary health care measurement framework and indicators, the first-ever globally-endorsed framework and a chance to accelerate progress on a global scale.
Our ability to measure primary health care has come a long way.
While global PHC commitments extend back decades, as recently as 2015, there was no globally-endorsed comprehensive framework for defining, measuring and monitoring primary health care. And around the time that PHCPI developed its early Conceptual Framework, only 25% of its essential building blocks could be evaluated through well-established measures.
Times have changed. Since 2018, the Primary Health Care Performance Initiative has partnered with 30+ countries to date to develop a Vital Signs Profile: an actionable snapshot showing the strengths and weaknesses of primary health care in the health system. Taken together, these Vital Signs Profiles have offered a wealth of lessons learned and areas for continued action.
In 2022, two core partners of PHCPI — WHO and UNICEF — released the landmark Primary Health Care Measurement Framework and Indicators. This represents the first-ever globally-normative and -endorsed framework of its kind, and the culmination of years of hard work and partnership, including across members of PHCPI. Other PHCPI resources like the PHC digital hub aim to help individuals and organizations unpack the key concepts from this framework and see how they link back to concepts from other PHCPI tools and resources. Explore all of these resources above & below.
Additional measurement resources
Guidance VSP Process Guide
Step-by-step guidance for countries to produce a Vital Signs Profile.
Guidance How to Read and Use the VSP
Guidance for how to read the Vital Signs Profile.
Report Measuring What Matters
Case studies on data innovations for strengthening primary health care.
Report Taking Stock of the Global PHC Measurement Landscape
Identifies conceptual and practical areas where PHC measurement is aligned and where there are gaps.
Methodology Note How VSP Profiles are Constructed
Explains how the Vital Signs Profile scores are constructed.
BETA PROTOTYPE A Simplified Guide to Empanelment
Panels for Population Health