Public Health System Architecture and Building Blocks Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering public health paradigms, structural healthcare models, decentralization in the Philippines under R.A. 7160, and the WHO Six Building Blocks framework.

Biomedical Model

A reductionist framework that conceptualizes health merely as the absence of pathology, characterized by high-tech, hospital-centric medical interventions administered by specialized clinicians to passive patients.

Charles-Edward Amory Winslow's Definition of Public Health

The 1920 classic definition of public health as the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting physical health and efficiency through organized community efforts.

Primary Prevention

Interventions implemented before any health effects occur to prevent disease onset, such as routine vaccinations, banning hazardous substances, or altering risky behaviors.

Secondary Prevention

Screening systems designed to detect and treat asymptomatic diseases in their earliest stages, such as blood pressure checks or mammography.

Tertiary Prevention

Management of established diseases to prevent or slow down clinical progression and complications, such as physical rehabilitation.

1978 Alma-Ata Declaration

A landmark international declaration that formally rejected top-down biomedical models and established Primary Health Care as essential, universally accessible health care grounded in community participation and social justice.

Selective Primary Health Care (SPHC)

A post-Alma-Ata framework that bypassed broader social structures to focus on low-cost, vertical clinical interventions targeting high-mortality diseases.

GOBI-FFF

UNICEF's Selective Primary Health Care framework shorthand representing Growth monitoring, Oral rehydration, Breastfeeding, Immunization, Female education, Family spacing, and Food supplementation.

Primary Care

A strictly clinical level of service delivery representing the first point of contact within a biomedical healthcare system.

Primary Health Care (PHC)

A broad system-organizing philosophy centered on social justice, community participation, health equity, and intersectoral action across societal sectors.

Population Health

A diagnostic public health paradigm focused on tracking collective health outcomes and disparities across defined groups, driven by the formula: $\text{Outcomes} = f(\text{Healthcare} + \text{Behavior} + \text{Environment} + \text{Socioeconomic} + \text{Genetics})$.

Health Promotion

An operational public health paradigm focused on enabling people and communities to increase control over, and improve, their health by modifying structural, legal, and environmental architectures.

1986 Ottawa Charter

The foundational operational framework for health promotion, outlining five action pillars: Build Healthy Public Policy, Create Supportive Environments, Strengthen Community Action, Develop Personal Skills, and Reorient Health Services.

RA 10351 (The Sin Tax Reform Law)

A Philippine legislative act exemplifying Healthy Public Policy by using tax structures on tobacco and alcohol to reduce consumption and generate revenue to fund universal health care.

Republic Act 7160 (Local Government Code of 1991)

The statutory law that decentralized Philippine health services, transferring the direct management, financing, and delivery of healthcare from the national DOH to Local Government Units (LGUs).

Beveridge Model

A healthcare system model (e.g., UK) funded through general government taxation with substantial public ownership and delivery, where care is generally free at the point of use.

Bismarck Model

A healthcare system model (e.g., Germany) financed through mandatory social health insurance using competing non-profit sickness funds with pluralistic and private service delivery.

Philippine Hybrid System

A pluralistic, mixed health system combining tax-funded LGU facilities (Beveridge-lite), PhilHealth social insurance (Bismarck-lite), private provider networks, and high household out-of-pocket spending.

Primary Care Provider Networks (PCPNs)

A Philippine UHC Act initiative designed to organize health service delivery into proactive, community-based networks anchored on primary care gatekeeping and referral pathways.

Continuity of Care

The provision of coordinated and uninterrupted health services over time as patients transition across different levels or types of care.

Health Workforce Maldistribution

The structural geographic imbalance where health professionals concentrate in urban areas and private practice, leaving rural areas (e.g., GIDA) understaffed and under-resourced.

Health Information Systems (HIS)

The WHO building block comprising mechanisms and IT infrastructure used to systematically collect, analyze, synthesize, and disseminate health data for decision-making.

Interoperability

The capability of distinct health information systems, software applications, and devices to connect, exchange, and cooperatively use data across administrative levels.

Special Health Fund (SHF)

A financial mechanism under the Philippine UHC Law mandated to pool health resources at the provincial level and transition system purchasing toward population-based capitation.

Local Health Board (LHB)

The grassroots governance body in Philippine LGUs tasked with local health planning, policy development, budgetary allocation, and strategic leadership.