{"id":9779,"date":"2011-06-29T11:13:04","date_gmt":"2011-06-29T10:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=9779"},"modified":"2011-07-01T15:52:17","modified_gmt":"2011-07-01T14:52:17","slug":"tiago-villanueva-barbara-starfields-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2011\/06\/29\/tiago-villanueva-barbara-starfields-legacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiago Villanueva: Barbara Starfield’s legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tiago_Villanueva\" Primary healthcare gurus\u00a0can’t compete with the ranks of top film or sports stars in terms of global notoriety, but\u00a0Barbara Starfield<\/a>, who died\u00a0earlier this month in California<\/a> aged 78, was one of the most, if not the most, glistening star of the world of academic primary healthcare. She\u00a0came as close to worldwide celebrity status as a primary health care academic\u00a0gets. <\/p>\n

A\u00a0\u201cpaediatrician by training, a health services researcher by trade, and natural teacher by talent<\/a>\u201d\u00a0very few can claim to be able to remain at the top of their game like Professor Starfield was at 78, and be known and cited by the\u00a0general practice and primary health care community\u00a0around the world.\u00a0\u00a0A quick Google Scholar<\/a> search of\u00a0“Barbara Starfield”\u00a0shows\u00a0many of her articles and books had several hundreds of citations.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0global primary health care community\u00a0publicised news of her death in\u00a0hours\u00a0through email, list servers, and\u00a0Twitter,\u00a0 ahead of\u00a0mainstream media<\/a> obituaries.<\/p>\n

A Spanish colleague and friend who had worked very closely and published several articles with her emailed me\u00a0news of her death in\u00a0just under 12 hours.\u00a0\u00a0Many professional and academic societies in the realm of general practice and primary care around the world followed suit<\/a>.\u00a0Medical journals around the world have published or are in the process of publishing obituaries and special feature articles about her. There is\u00a0even a forum<\/a> “to commemorate her life’s contributions and connect with other individuals who think similarly.”<\/p>\n

Professor Starfield, who developed a long career at Johns Hopkins University, leaves a massive legacy. Much of the scientific basis for claiming that primary care matters a lot and that “national health care systems with strong primary care infrastructures have healthier populations, fewer health-related disparities and lower overall costs for health care” is the\u00a0fruit of her work<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Due to the sheer weight of her legacy, it is expected that the current generation of doctors and researchers globally will continue to study, cite, and build on her work, and that several future generations will also be familiar with her work and admire her in pretty much the same way as William Osler<\/a>, a former Johns Hopkins’ professor himself and dubbed by some as the \u201cfather of modern medicine\u201d is still admired today because of his enormous contributions to the development of medical education and clinical medicine.<\/p>\n

If you didn’t know who Barbara Starfield was, or you’re not familiar with her work and how influential it was, I suggest that you start by having a look at her article published in 2005 in the journal Millbank Quarterly<\/a> and take it from there. It might change the way you think about healthcare.<\/p>\n

Tiago Villanueva<\/strong> is a GP based in Portugal, and a former BMJ Clegg Scholar and Student BMJ editor.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Primary healthcare gurus\u00a0can’t compete with the ranks of top film or sports stars in terms of global notoriety, but\u00a0Barbara Starfield, who died\u00a0earlier this month in California aged 78, was one […]<\/p>\n

More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[223,2246],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-bloggers","category-tiago-villanueva"],"yoast_head":"\nTiago Villanueva: Barbara Starfield's legacy - The BMJ<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2011\/06\/29\/tiago-villanueva-barbara-starfields-legacy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tiago Villanueva: Barbara Starfield's legacy - The BMJ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Primary healthcare gurus\u00a0can’t compete with the ranks of top film or sports stars in terms of global notoriety, but\u00a0Barbara Starfield, who died\u00a0earlier this month in California aged 78, was one [...]More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2011\/06\/29\/tiago-villanueva-barbara-starfields-legacy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The BMJ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bmjdotcom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-06-29T10:13:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-07-01T14:52:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/site\/blog\/icons\/tiago_villanueva.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bmj_latest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bmj_latest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2011\\\/06\\\/29\\\/tiago-villanueva-barbara-starfields-legacy\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2011\\\/06\\\/29\\\/tiago-villanueva-barbara-starfields-legacy\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\"},\"headline\":\"Tiago Villanueva: Barbara Starfield’s legacy\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-29T10:13:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-07-01T14:52:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2011\\\/06\\\/29\\\/tiago-villanueva-barbara-starfields-legacy\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":470,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2011\\\/06\\\/29\\\/tiago-villanueva-barbara-starfields-legacy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.bmj.com\\\/site\\\/blog\\\/icons\\\/tiago_villanueva.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Guest writers\",\"Tiago Villanueva\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2011\\\/06\\\/29\\\/tiago-villanueva-barbara-starfields-legacy\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2011\\\/06\\\/29\\\/tiago-villanueva-barbara-starfields-legacy\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2011\\\/06\\\/29\\\/tiago-villanueva-barbara-starfields-legacy\\\/\",\"name\":\"Tiago Villanueva: Barbara Starfield's legacy - 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