The Lancet Global Health Commission on People-Centered Care for Universal Health Coverage

Headshots of the commissioners and advisers

For and with the people

The Commission aims to address gaps in evidence and practice to ensure that health systems worldwide truly serve and engage with the people they are designed for. The Commission emphasizes the need for meaningful engagement with people who have lived experience, across all stages of health policymaking and care delivery. Our goal is to promote equitable, high-quality care, grounded in the principles of people-centered care and health equity.

The Commission has brought together 34 commissioners and a board of 15 advisers to convene from October 2024 to September 2027. Commissioners were selected through an open global call for nominations and self-nominations, a first for Lancet Commissions. Commissioners represent a diverse and balanced group of multidisciplinary experts from around the world, including people with lived experiences, health care providers, policymakers, academic researchers, civil society organizers, and private sector leaders. Together, they will operationally define, rigorously measure, and effectively operationalize people-centered care across a variety of settings and income levels while examining how to best co-produce health systems and care models through shared partnership and leadership with people with lived experience.

Read a brief history of models of care

Meet the advisers

Meet the commissioners

Meet the secretariat

Patient-centered care, person-centered, whole person-centered care, and people-centered care are all descriptions of approaches to health care. While they sound quite similar each approach can have major implications on the type of care the patient receives.

Medical Paternalism
Before we describe the approaches that have been discussed and put into practice in the last few decades, we feel it’s important to acknowledge where we started. Benjamin Franklin once said, “Doctors should avoid sacrificing too much to the taste of (their) patients. Yield to them in matters of little consequence, but maintain an inflexible authority to them in matters of essential life.” This medical paternalism approach to care is problematic and many health equity issues that are present today are rooted in science’s dismissal of people’s experiences.
Patient-centered care
In this model of care, the patient is evaluated as a whole person. Rather than simply assessing the biometrics gathered during the patient encounter such as blood pressure, blood oxygen level, and physical symptoms, a physician considers the social, psychological, and behavioral dimensions of each person. That person is treated as a unique human being rather than a “medical case.”
Person-centered care
While patient-centered care was a step in the right direction, it still excluded the patient from the decision-making process of their care. In 1993, Henry Picker said that people-centered care, “puts people at the heart of health and social services, including care, support, and enablement. Users are recognized as individuals, encouraged to play an active role in their care, and where their needs and preferences are understood and respected.”
People-centered care
To promote health equity, we must consider how the social determinants of health effect affect communities and co-produce services through policy. Only through partnership will true change occur enabling people to have equal access to the best care possible. This style of care is the ideal. It puts people at the center and empowers their communities to become active participants in the health care process.

Angeli Achrekar

Deputy Executive Director, United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations

Agnes Binagwaho

Former Minister of Health & Former Vice Chancellor, University of Global Health Equity, Rwanda

Nicola Bedlington

Founding Partner at Millwater Partners

Sanjana Bhardwaj

Deputy Director, Women’s Health and Primary Health Care, Gates Foundation

Francesca Colombo

Head of the Health Division at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Suraya Dalil

Director, World Health Organization Special Programme on Primary Health Care

Sandra Eades

Associate Dean Indigenous and Rowden White Chair, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne

Tim Fountaine

Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company

Lutz Hegemann

President, Global Health and Sustainability, Novartis

Arthur Kleinman

Rabb Professor of Anthropology and Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine and Psychiatry at Harvard

Christopher Muñoz

Advisor, Yellow Warriors Society Philippines Inc.

Vice-President Philippine Alliance of Patient Organizations

Harald Nusser

Vice President, Global Health and Health Equity, Merck

Cynthia Rayner

Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford Saïd Business School’s Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship

Florence Riako Anam

Co-Executive Director at the Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+)

Vichai Tienthavorn

Chancellor of Praboromarajchanok Institute & Former Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand

	Luke Allen Co-Director, Global Primary Care at Oxford's Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences; Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales
	Duc Anh Ha General Director, Medical Service Administration
	Mark Barone Founder and General Manager, Intersectoral Forum of NCCs/NCDs in Brazil (ForumCCNTs)
	Lucía Feito Allonca Advisory Committee, Global Week for Action on NCDs, NCD Alliance Registered Lawyer, Gijón Bar Association
	Stephen Bell Principal Research Fellow, Theme Lead - Social Science and Global Health
	David Duong Director of Global Primary Care at Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care
	Sameh El-Saharty Senior Health Policy Advisor, Consultant at the World Bank
	Ibtihal Fadhil Founder & Chair, NCD Alliance, Eastern Mediterranean Region
	Rushika Fernandopulle Co-founder, Iora Health
	Tinashe Goronga Program Manager Equalhealth Campaign Against Racism , Co-Founder Centre for Health Equity Zimbabwe
	Kimberly Green Global Director, Primary Health Care Program Director at PATH (Foundation for Appropriate Technologies in Health)
	Lisa Hirschhorn Professor, Department Medical Social Science and Director Ryan Family Center for Global Primary Care, Havey Institute for Global Health at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
	Beth Holt Associate Director of Health Systems, Global Primary Health Care, Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care
	Nathan Hutting Associate professor, Occupation and Health Research Group at HAN University of Applied Sciences
	Meena Isaac Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Pushpagiri Medical College, Thiruvalla, Kerala
	Ruth Labode Director, Apple Pharmacy
	Xiaoyun Liu Deputy Director, Professor, China Centre for Health Development Studies, Peking University
	Maureen Luba Senior Advisor for Global Policy at AVAC
	Maxo Luma Executive Director, Partners In Health, Liberia
	Adolfo Martinez Valle Head of Academic Unit, CIPPS at National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)
	Brendan McCormack Head of School and Dean, The Susan Wakil School of Nursing and Midwifery (inc. Sydney Nursing School), University of Sydney
	Sinit Mehtsun Executive Director, Health Systems Engagement, Gilead Sciences
	Stephen Mills Regional Director, Asia EpiC Project
	Todd Pollack Director, Implementation Science, Global Primary Health Care, Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care Medical Director, HAIVN program, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
	Steve Reid Director and Chair of Primary Health Care, University of Cape Town
	Magda Robalo President and Co-founder, IGHD, Guinea-Bissau
	Rosanne Rotondo Head, Global Health Access at Novartis Global Health
	Diah S. Saminarsih CEO & Founder, CISDI
	Glenda Sandy Advisor, Infectious Disease, Department of Public Health, Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services
	Anthony Paulo Sunjaya Senior Lecturer, School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney; Honorary Fellow, The George Institute for Global Health; Consultant, Tyree Institute of Health Engineering, UNSW Engineering
	Carolyn Taylor Founder/Executive Director, Global Focus on Cancer
	Bach Xuan Tran Professor, Vice Head, Department of Health Economics, Hanoi Medical University
	Lavanya Vijayasingham Independent Global Health Research Professional
	Maxine Anne Whittaker Professor, James Cook University