Findings from a Survey of an Uncategorized Cadre of Clinicians in 46 Countries – Increasing Access to Medical Care with a Focus on Regional Needs Since the 17th Century

Abstract

With the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Post-2015 Development Agenda upon us, it is increasingly important to address the worldwide deficit of human resources for health. Ironically, there is a unique subset of regionally trained healthcare providers that has existed for centuries, functioning often as an "invisible" workforce. These practitioners have been trained in an accelerated medical model and serve their communities in over 46 countries worldwide. For the purpose of this paper, "medical model" is defined as the evidence-based and scientific manner of training and practice that defines physicians globally.Inconsistent nomenclature, however, has resulted in these workers practicing as a virtually unidentified and disjointed cadre on the margins of health policy planning. We use the term Accelerated Medically Trained Clinician (AMTC) here as a categorical designation to encompass these professionals who have been referred to by various titles.We conducted an exploratory, systematic review for AMTCs in over 70 counties to asses if there is such a cadre, the name or title of their cadre, period of and curricula of training and existence of credentialing. This paper reports our findings and aims to serve as a springboard for future, in-depth studies on how we can better categorize and utilize these clinicians.

Delivering on Equity Depends on Us

“…These manuscripts include: an evaluation of multi-sector collaboration in Thailand to promote public health and healthy behaviours (Sopitarchasak et al 2015); protecting and retaining health workers in civil war-torn Syria (Abbara et al 2015); the initial report of an innovative continuity based model for health professionals training health professionals in 11 countries (Kerry et al 2015); a survey of 70 low-and middle-income countries to assess stock, training and credentials of medically trained clinicians, including physician assistants and medical officers (Cobb et al 2015); one year in, an assessment of Indonesia's national health insurance system and the contextual HRH challenges (Sciortino and Roy 2015); team-based HIV treatment services using a nurse-led practice model to expand access to services in Namibia Delivering on Equity Depends on Us (Wesson et al 2015); and a global perspective on the mandate for health workforce measurement that calls for a new approach to global governance and national accountability (DeLuca and Castro Lopes 2015).…”