In 2013, a group of friends sat around a kitchen table in Oxford. Together they brought expertise in evidence-based clinical guidance, medical education, innovation, enterprise and development. Above all, they shared a passion for primary healthcare. They were frustrated by the lack of opportunity for primary healthcare teams to fulfill their potential in weak or fragmented healthcare systems around the world, resulting in preventable deaths every year, particularly as a result of chronic disease in resource-poor settings.

They decided to use their experience, knowledge and connections to begin to tackle this. With seed funding, resources and technical assistance from founding partner Red Whale (a leading British medical education provider), PCI was formally registered and began life as a social enterprise the following year.

Our Social Impact: Since our launch in 2014, PCI has:

Winning contracts with high profile partners before the company was even formally registered, PCI quickly formed a niche expertise in the management of NCD care within primary healthcare, and soon saw the impact of this work on the healthcare system.

“..this training will be a game changer in management of NCDs at the camp” (participant in training at Dadaab refugee camp, Kenya, 2014)

PCI has gone on to provide tailored training, mentoring and consultancy to a diverse range of organisations including the World Health Organisation, UNHCR, Médécins Sans Frontières and the International Rescue Committee.

Alongside this, we’ve worked with partners to tackle new and innovative ways to tackle NCDs by testing locally developed solutions. PCI led a Healthcare Innovation Programme (2015-2020) which worked across several African countries. Through this programme, PCI has partnered with a number of NGOs, as well as Ministries of Health in Botswana, Namibia and Mozambique. This programme has generated invaluable lessons and scalable models for health workforce capacity building and primary healthcare systems strengthening.

“We are really delighted with the results of this partnership: the primary care guidelines have been rolled out successfully with multidisciplinary healthcare teams in all eight pilot districts and we plan to replicate this model in other districts soon.” (Dr Gontse Tshisimogo, MoHW, Botswana)

The PCI team has grown from a small band of inspired individuals to a dynamic, dedicated team of practising clinicians, project managers and global health experts located round the world, underpinned by a diverse and dedicated Board. PCI retains a lean operating model and all revenues are re-invested in further developing our resources and services.

We hit our five-year milestone in 2019 and we continue to evolve and grow our impact. In 2021 we became a registered Community Interest Company and launched the PCI Academy: our online home for learning for primary healthcare practitioners. What we don’t plan to change are our values, our flexibility and our ability to connect with people as individuals

We will continue to work together with our partners to provide quality support to our front-line partners delivering healthcare in difficult and often challenging situations. In turn, we remain committed to improving the lives of the people and communities they serve.