Barbara Starfield: an appreciation

Barbara Starfield, perhaps the most influential figure in the primary care research community, died unexpectedly at home on June 10 this year while swimming in her pool. She was steadfast in her belief that primary care is central to the delivery of high quality cost-effective health care. Her second passion was as a champion of primary care as the key way to address healthcare inequalities, and she was founding editor of the International Journal for Equity in Health. She was highly critical of health care in her own country, (the US), viewing it as dominated by specialists who provide expensive, inequitable, and sometimes damaging …