WONCA & OECD: What Patients Say and Why It Matters to Family Doctors

The OECD's Patient-Reported Indicator Surveys (PaRIS) initiative marks a turning point in how health systems evaluate primary care. For the first time on a global scale, patients are at the centre of assessment—not just as recipients of care, but as essential sources of insight. The PaRIS survey collects data on outcomes and experiences directly from people aged 45 and older with chronic conditions, offering new benchmarks and lessons for healthcare improvement. For WONCA and the global family medicine community, this effort is deeply aligned with our values: person-centred care, continuity, equity, and system effectiveness.

As Prof. Viviana Martinez-Bianchi, WONCA President-Elect, said during the second webinar: "This isn’t just a data collection tool— it’s a mirror reflecting the essence of what we strive to do in family medicine... to care for people, not just diseases." These webinars aim to amplify that reflection and help inform the future of primary care, worldwide. You can also read about her panel remarks during the launch event of the OECD PaRIS report.

WONCA has supported the PaRIS initiative from the start. Dr. Candan Kendir, both a family doctor and OECD policy analyst, explained this in her article “Results from the Patient-Reported Indicator Surveys (PaRIS): Putting Patients at the Centre”, describing how WONCA contributed to early design and fieldwork and how the results reinforce the core values of family medicine.

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WONCA Webinar Series: Exploring the OECD PaRIS Survey Results

This three-part webinar series is hosted by the WONCA Working Party on Quality and Safety. It aims to highlight key findings from the OECD’s Patient-Reported Indicator Surveys (PaRIS) and support family doctors in using this data to advocate for stronger, more responsive primary care systems worldwide.

Webinar 1: Does Healthcare Deliver? A Global Look at Patient-Reported Data in Primary Care

The series opened with a presentation by Dr. Candan Kendir, OECD health policy analyst and family physician, who played a pivotal role in the development of the PaRIS initiative. She introduced the methodology and results of the first survey cycle, which captured data from over 107,000 patients and 1,800 primary care practices across 19 countries. The focus was on understanding patients' physical and mental health, social functioning, well-being, and their confidence in managing their own care.

Dr. Kendir emphasized the need for data that reflects what patients value most: access, continuity, care coordination, and person-centredness. One of the key findings was that while many countries deliver strong care experiences, gaps persist—especially in areas like care coordination, self-management support, and information continuity. The results showed that patients with multiple chronic conditions often reported lower well-being and trust in the healthcare system unless those areas were well addressed.

The webinar also laid out how countries can participate in the second cycle of the survey and why family doctors are critical to its success. Kendir encouraged WONCA members to engage their Ministries of Health and national primary care networks to support implementation. Her presentation highlighted the survey’s alignment with WONCA’s goals to strengthen primary care systems by listening to patients' voices and using their experiences to guide policy and quality improvement.

Webinar 2: Patient Reported Outcomes and Experiences in Slovenia and Czechia

The second webinar featured Professor Zalika Klemenc-Ketiš and Professor Bohumil Seifert, who shared detailed findings from Slovenia and the Czech Republic—two countries that scored highly in the PaRIS survey despite relatively modest health spending. Their results showed that systems built on strong family medicine, trust, and long-term relationships between patients and providers can achieve excellent outcomes and experiences.

In both countries, over 75% of patients had been with the same family doctor for five years or more—a level of continuity associated with higher satisfaction and better health outcomes. Slovenia excelled in public trust and physical health indicators, while Czechia stood out in patient empowerment and perceived quality of care. Both demonstrated that efficient, person-centred primary care is not just ideal— it is achievable, even in resource-constrained settings.

The presenters also reflected on lessons for the global community, including the importance of patient self-management support, measuring what matters to people, and using these indicators to drive quality improvement at practice level. As both presenters noted, PaRIS provided a rare opportunity to measure core values of family medicine—such as continuity, person-centredness, and comprehensiveness—and to benchmark them internationally. Prof. Klemenc-Ketiš expanded on this in her WONCA article, “What if patients could help you improve healthcare—not just for themselves, but for millions worldwide?”

Upcoming Webinar: Measurements Behind Patients’ Voices – PROMs and PREMs in OECD PaRIS

Date & Time: Sunday, 6 July 2025 at 10:00 UTC
Speaker: Prof. Jose M. Valderas, MD, PhD, National University of Singapore

This session will focus on the measurement science behind the PaRIS survey—patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and patient-reported experience measures (PREMs). Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of the tools used in PaRIS and how to interpret and apply the results in practice and advocacy.

Register here: https://eu01web.zoom.us/meeting/register/8VNTjPZpR2eaWGjOVLSuZg