Jeffrey F. Markuns, MD

Biography

Jeff is the Executive Director for the Global Health Collaborative in the Department of Family Medicine, as well as the founding Director of the Certificate and Masters programs in Health Professions Education in the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences at the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine at Boston University. Jeff is currently the Interim Senior Medical Director for Community Health Centers at Harbor Health Services, Inc., which includes the Daniel Driscoll Neponset Community Health Center, Harbor Community Health Centers in Hyannis on Cape Cod and Plymouth, as well as Geiger Gibson Community Health Center, one of the first two community health centers in the United States.

Jeff’s extensive international work began with the Collaborative in 2007, leading to a variety of roles providing teaching and consultation around the world with a special focus on education and training as well as primary care systems integration. Most recently, as the Executive Director of the Primary Health Care Performance Initiative (PHCPI – improvingphc.org), Jeff led the transition and conclusion of this partnership of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the Global Fund (to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria), Ariadne Labs, and Results For Development focused on better measurement of primary health care globally. Jeff was also the project leader for the Vietnam Family Medicine Development Program and its flagship project sponsored by the Atlantic Philanthropies working with multiple Vietnamese universities and the Ministry of Health on national-level scale up of a Family Medicine-based primary care model for delivery of grassroots clinical services and integration with the existing hospital-based system. Jeff continues to direct a similar program retraining physicians in Laos from remote district hospitals to provide general medical services and primary care, as well as a comprehensive Family Medicine workforce development program with the Myanmar Academy of Family Physicians.

Jeff also founded the Masters and Certificate program in Health Professions Education at Boston University, recognizing the critical need for these skills through his work both domestically and abroad. The program has been particularly successful in attracting and support students from traditionally under-represented groups in medicine and implemented additional support for students from low and middle income countries.

Jeff has led numerous workshops around the world focused on medical education and primary care systems development, and he has developed and organized countless fellowships to Boston University for visiting professionals ranging from practicing specialist physicians to health system administrators to government policy-makers, including Ministers of Health. With broad clinical skills in the full spectrum of Family Medicine clinical services, formal fellowship training in medical education, and almost a decade of experience as an assistant program director in postgraduate training in Family Medicine, Jeff has served as a consultant in various aspects of both general medical education and primary care in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Oman, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam. Jeff is the Immediate Past President for the North America region of the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA), and chaired its global Organizational Equity Committee. Jeff previously chaired the board of the American Academy of Family Physicians’ Center for Global Health Initiatives, and continues to lead its advocacy working group trying to increase support for comprehensive primary health care in U.S. global aid. He has authored several articles and textbook chapters in primary care and global health, and was lead author in the revision of the chapter on Education and Professional Development in the WONCA guidebook, The Contribution of Family Medicine to Improving Health Systems, 2nd Ed.