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Building primary health care from the ground up: family medicine, academic partnership, and health system reform in Ethiopia

Meseret Zerihun, Assegid Geleta, Katherine Dominique Rouleau, Praseedha Janakiram and 5 more

Frontiers in Medicine | Sep 28, 2026

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Ethiopia's experience offers potentially relevant regional lessons for advancing FM toward Universal Health Coverage.

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Since 2013, Ethiopia has trained more than 100 family physicians, a resource whose potential depends on integration of family medicine (FM) within a primary health care (PHC)-oriented health system. The Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration in Family Medicine (TAAAC-FM) has supported Ethiopia's inaugural FM residency since its inception. In 2025, TAAAC-FM co-convened a Policy Dialogue in Addis Ababa, with 40 participants from 10 countries to advance FM within PHC transformation. Five priorities emerged: FM identity and recognition; training reform; sustainable career pathways; health system alignment; equity and community engagement. Three recommendations: establishing government policy defining FM's role; expanding training and career pathways; and coordinating advocacy. Ethiopia's experience offers potentially relevant regional lessons for advancing FM toward Universal Health Coverage.

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Authors

Researchers on this paper

Meseret Zerihun

first | Addis Ababa University

Assegid Geleta

middle | Addis Ababa University

Katherine Dominique Rouleau

middle | St. Michael's Hospital | ORCID 0000-0001-6970-7539

Praseedha Janakiram

middle | University of Toronto | ORCID 0009-0006-6688-6010

Jamie Rodas

middle | University of Toronto

Marci Rose

middle

Ellena Andoniou

middle | University Health Network | ORCID 0000-0001-5789-4736

Assefa Abegaz

middle | Addis Ababa University | ORCID 0000-0002-6540-9910

Dawit Wondimagegn

last | Addis Ababa University | ORCID 0000-0002-5035-3731

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Citation

BibTeX

@article{Zerihun2026Building,
  title = {Building primary health care from the ground up: family medicine, academic partnership, and health system reform in Ethiopia},
  author = {Meseret Zerihun and Assegid Geleta and Katherine Dominique Rouleau and Praseedha Janakiram and Jamie Rodas and Marci Rose and Ellena Andoniou and Assefa Abegaz and Dawit Wondimagegn},
  journal = {Frontiers in Medicine},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.3389/fmed.2026.1897582},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2026.1897582}
}

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