Dr. Ben Chan discussed current priorities of key multilateral organizations and governments for investment, including improving universal health coverage; strengthening primary health care; creating robust measurement systems; and focusing not just on “outputs” but the quality of services provided.
Improving quality of care is best served with a top-down, systems approach that considers everything affecting care - valuable insight for Rotary as we build beyond "one-off" health and development projects toward real sustainability.
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Dr. Ben Chan is Assistant Professor of Global Health at the University of Toronto and a leading figure in Canada on strategy and leadership for healthcare quality. Dr. Chan was the inaugural CEO of the Health Quality Councils of Saskatchewan (2003-2007) and Ontario (2007-2012). In recognition of his work in spearheading improvement initiatives in chronic disease management, patient safety and public reporting on quality, Dr. Chan was named in 2006 Canada’s Outstanding Young Health Executive.
Dr. Chan consults widely to the World Bank, WHO and foreign governments. He advised on the national quality strategies for Colombia and Georgia and led quality improvement projects to improve diabetes, hypertension, and childhood malnutrition in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. He is currently working with the World Bank on the Primary Health Care Performance Initiative, aimed at developing a common quality scorecard across low- and middle-income countries.
Dr. Chan is also an experienced primary care and emergency department physician, and has worked in over seventy rural and indigenous communities across Canada and participated in volunteer medical missions in Mali, Haiti, Angola and Russia. He has at least partial fluency in all six official UN languages. He holds a BSc and MD (Toronto), Master of Public Health (Harvard) and Master of Public Affairs (Princeton).