[Community health: integration of primary care and public health competencies. SESPAS report 2010]

Primary care and public health have run on parallel tracks with scarce points of contact or coordination in community action to improve the population's health. If community health is defined as the "health of individuals and groups in a defined community, determined by the interaction of personal and familial factors and by the socioeconomic-cultural and physical environments" and of community intervention is defined as local action to improve community health, primary care and public health are the key players to implement this aim. However, their actions should take into account other local actors, including the population. The inclusion of community health as an objective of the health system highlights the need to achieve more coordinated and comprehensive action, and to introduce advances in several areas, which include training for health professionals, contracts to service providers, systems for defining service portfolios, and organizational aspects of services.