Back to prevention — the push for primary care

Americans spend more on health care than any other country in the world.

Yet, we don’t live longer and we die more often from heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes.

Family nurse practitioner Kathy Morris is an assistant professor in the College of Nursing and a primary care provider in Nebraska and Iowa.

Each of these diseases is preventable in a health care system attuned to a primary care model that emphasizes health promotion.

“Most people do not need specialty care for the majority of their medical problems,” said Michael Sitorius, M.D., chairman of the UNMC Department of Family Medicine. “But, they do need, regardless of age, someone who delivers their primary care.”

Ranked as one of the leading institutions in the training of primary care professionals, UNMC has long valued a strong primary care program. Now, it is strategically poised to create a primary care center to improve the education of its students and spark new interdisciplinary patient care and research programs.

Read more about UNMC’s primary care efforts in the latest edition of UNMC Connect.