Background & Rationale
Prior to gaining independence in 1991, Armenia’s healthcare system was a fragmented Soviet-era Semashko-style system focused mostly around specialists, with only a small role for family doctors. Since independence, Armenia’s healthcare system has been slowly shifting toward a family medicine based healthcare system, however there is a crucial shortage of primary care physicians in Armenia’s rural areas. While there is a surplus of doctors in the capital Yerevan (62.7 physicians per 10,000 population compared to the European average of 35 per 10,000), all regions outside Yerevan suffer from a critical shortage of healthcare providers (14.6-23.4 per 10,000). The aftermath of the Covid pandemic, the 2020 war, the forcible displacement of 120,000+ people from Artsakh to Armenia, and the continued threat of aggression by Azerbaijan, have further exacerbated the existing situation, putting Armenia’s health security at risk.
Families living in Armenia’s rural areas have drastically lower accessibility to healthcare, including lack of qualified doctors/nurses and substandard equipment. When combined with lower incomes, system factors, and prevailing ideologies, rural families do not seek out care until it is often too late.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 47% of male adults in Armenia smoke, and 41.9% of adult men and women have high blood pressure. It is thus not surprising that heart disease, stroke, airway cancers and chronic lung disease are the top four causes of mortality in Armenia. Morbidity and mortality can be largely prevented if family medicine doctors, trained as health care leaders, are deployed to Armenia’s rural areas - not only to provide high quality preventive care on a daily basis but to shift the health care culture in Armenia towards families seeking out regular check ups, managing their diseases properly, and changing their behavior before falling victim to heart disease, stroke, cancer and chronic lung disease.
