Making Primary Health Care Work: From Interventions to Health Policy through Implementation Science A guest seminar with Professor Xiaolin Wei

Professor Xiaolin Wei will present a hybrid seminar titled Making Primary Health Care Work: From Interventions to Health Policy through Implementation Science in this guest seminar organised by the School of Medicine.

Professor Xiaolin Wei, MD, PhD, FFPH, is an internationally recognised leader in global health policy and implementation science. He is a Chair Professor and the Head of the Clinical Public Health Division in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. Dr Wei has led major scientific and policy innovations across tuberculosis, antimicrobial resistance, and chronic disease management. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles, including in The Lancet and Nature Medicine. He has led $16m in research funding as principal investigator. He was elected as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2022.

Strengthening primary health care is essential to achieving universal health coverage and addressing the growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Yet effective interventions often fail to become part of routine health services. Implementation science seeks to close this gap by studying how to adapt, deliver, and integrate research evidence into real-world health systems. By addressing barriers faced by patients, health providers, and health services, it can help improve care delivery and inform policies that support the wider adoption of effective interventions.

Drawing on a pragmatic cluster-randomised trial involving 30 public rural health centres and 1,965 patients with uncontrolled hypertension in rural Pakistan, Professor Xiaolin Wei will illustrate how implementation science can strengthen primary care. The trial found that an integrated, health provider-led, app-based digital health intervention achieved a 9*33 mm Hg greater reduction in systolic blood pressure (95% CI –11*57 to –7*09) than usual care at 12 months, alongside improvements in other NCD-related outcomes. The lecture will explore how such evidence can inform the organisation of primary care services and the development of health policy, with brief examples from antimicrobial resistance and tuberculosis research.