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This handbook gives profound insight into the main ideas and concepts of integrated care. It offers a managed care perspective with a focus on patient orientation, efficiency, and quality by applying widely recognized management approaches to the field of health care. The handbook also provides international best practices and shows how integrated care does work throughout various health systems

This is the first Joint Action on the Prevention of Frailty. It is co-funded by the Third European Health Programme of the European Union 2014-2020. With a budget of 3.5 million euros it will run for 3 years. It involves 22 Member States and over 40 organizations. Spain, in practice the Madrid Health Service-Getafe Hospital (a Reference site of the EIP – AHA)

On 24 May at the 70th World Health Assembly, a group of large emerging economies referred to as the “BRICS countries” – which includes Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa – convened at a side event sponsored by China. The aim: to share experiences and innovations on people-centred reforms as a cornerstone to making progress towards universal health coverage, using the WHO Framework on integrated people-centred health services as a basis for discussion….Find out more here

The EU-financed SELFIE project is researching integrated care for persons with multi-morbidity. SELFIE is currently evaluating promising integrated care programmes for multi-morbidity in eight EU countries: The Netherlands, Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Germany, Norway, the UK, and Spain.

The International Foundation is seeking an enthusiastic and flexible early career researcher or professional, who would like to experience the IFIC spirit and work alongside the leading international experts in the field of integrated care theory and practice.

The IFIC fellowship programme offers prospective participants a 10 months enhanced access to the expertise, network and events of IFIC, including one2one mentoring, participation in our study tours, conferences, and summer school. The basis for the fellowship is a project relevant to the fellow and their employer, which will be elaborated during the year

As part of IFIC’s Integrated Care Solutions © portfolio of work, IFIC’s CEO Dr Nick Goodwin will be facilitating a half-day workshop on Designing and Implementing Integrated Care Programs at the Global Conference on Integrated Care in Singapore on 1st February 2018.

In May 2017 IFIC was invited to become a content partner on a new joint initiative hosted by the Network of European Foundations entitled the Transnational Forum of Integrated Community Care.

Last week, IFIC celebrated its 17thInternational Conference on Integrated Care (ICIC17) in Dublin, Ireland on 8th to 10th May 2017. Co-hosted by the Health Services Executive in Ireland, the event attracted some 1200 delegates from 54 different countries with over 3,500 persons attending via the live stream.

On March 31th, 2017, delegates from the Franciscus Gasthuis & Vlietland (FG&V) regional hospital from the Netherlands visited North-West London, as part of an international learning exchange. The purpose of the trip was to bring together key physicians from the FG&V region to learn about essential approaches to the design, implementation and funding of integrated care.

This book will advance the literature on multi-organisational and multi-actor networks of care (i.e. care ecosystems) by specifically addressing the dual questions of:
• how do we (re)organize current care systems towards more integrated, more effective care provision
• and how do we do this in ways that benefit patients and their families, while also significantly increasing the quality of life for those who work within the care ecosystem.

The “Development of a new integrated care organizational model for patients with complex needs in the Basque Country”. A new organization model for the care of multimorbid patients was defined, developed and deployed as part of the EU funded project ‘CareWell’. Several elements were identified as key factors: integrated care pathways agreed by all stakeholders, decision support tools, ICT services, training of professionals, development of an structured empowerment program for patients and caregivers (Kronik-ON) and a new mathematical model to predict the use of resources in mid-long term (“Predictive Modelling”)

This year’s ICIC17 in Dublin was a fantastic experience. The growth in delegate numbers to some 1200 attendees, and the breadth in representation from 54 different countries, demonstrates the international appeal in integrated care as a means to achieving more sustainable health and care systems.

Once again, attending the ICIC conference has been a rich and truly gratifying experience. The plenaries, breakout sessions and workshops, as well as the endless opportunities to debate and learn have configured a vibrant event. I very much hope that all delegates have enjoyed it as much as I did.

Being at the ICIC17 was a real pleasure. The high number of delegates and the high number of contributions from numerous countries reflects that integrated care matters. As in previous editions, attendees still want to explore what integrated care really is about, how it can work in practice, what experiences there are and, what we can learn from each other. Lessons are being shared and also being recognized by others when discussed

#ICIC17 is over, and what a great conference it was! Overall it was very heart-warming to see and experience the strong patient and carer voice over the three days, which was felt at a number of levels. On behalf of the 105 patient organisation members in IPPOSI, I wish to thank the IFIC team, and especially Dr Aine Carroll, the HSE’s National Director of Clinical Strategy & Programmes, for putting together such a wonderful event. Some of our IPPOSI-related highlights included

Congratulations to Nick and his entire team for another successful ICIC! It is an accomplishment in itself to be in the 17th year of the event, but having the most registrants to date speaks volumes to the impact and increasing relevance of integrated care.

We have just published a paper on an integrated community service development we have been observing for more than a decade (1,2). The collaborative relationship started with the recognition that people with serious and persistent mental illnesses did not access general practitioners for physical health care despite being amongst the most vulnerable people in the community.

On 16th and 17th March 2017 a meeting was held of the IFIC Executive Board at the offices of OptiMedis AG in Hamburg, Germany to discuss the Foundation’s future focus and direction.A highlight of the meeting was to take a site visit to a new project seeking to improve the health and wellbeing of people in Billstedt and Horn.

The project follows-up on work done by the Health System Performance Assessment (HSPA) Expert Group in the development of an assessment framework for integrated care

Today, 8th March is International Women’s Day and we would like to take the opportunity to recognise some of the great women who are advancing the science, knowledge and application of Integrated Care around the world.

It is now more than a month since the 4th World Congress on Integrated Care (WCIC4) was held in Wellington. Over 600 delegates from the USA, Europe, Asia, Australia and of course the host nation, New Zealand attended the 3 day event taking advantage of the high quality of plenary discussions, parallel sessions and workshops.

Both CareWell and BeyondSilos projects will come to an end in January 2017 after three years of successful implementation of technology enabled integrated eCare services in 11 European regions. In this respect, we look forward to presenting the final results of our fruitful work during our final conference in Barcelona (Spain), held back-to-back with the GSMA World Mobile Congress.

Chief Medical Officer, Lakes District Health Board

Evidence from a 10-year study conducted by Intermountain Healthcare shows it is possible to deliver high quality patient care while simultaneously reducing costs using team-based care within an integrated delivery system.

GP, Fairfield, NSW, Australia

Globally, 2016 is likely to become regarded as the year that the integrated care movement came of age. The ratification by the 69th World Health Assembly in May of the World Health Organisation’s Framework for Integrated People-Centred Health Services set a global challenge for all care systems to make a fundamental shift in care delivery that puts people and communities at the centre of more co-ordinated health and care systems.

Parallel to an ageing society is the increase in prevalence of multi-morbidity. Persons with multi-morbidity often deal with multiple care providers in both the health- and social care sectors, and are likely to benefit from person-centred integrated, and well-coordinated, care. Different integrated care programmes for multi-morbidity can be identified, however, further developments in the field are needed. The Horizon2020 EU project ‘SELFIE’ (Sustainable intEgrated care modeLs for multi-morbidity: delivery, FinancIng and pErformance) aims to address these needs. In the coming years, we would like to update readers of the IFIC-blog on the progress we make in SELFIE.

Please click below to download all the presentations from WCIC4, or return to the WCIC4 event page.    

The IBenC Consortium has announce that its Final Conference will be featured within the context of the European Summit on Digital Innovation for Active & Healthy Ageing, as Partner Event.

Whanau Tahi announces a 3 Year strategic knowledge partnership with the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC).
Whānau Tahi’s moemoea is for vital wellness data and family health plans to be shared across health, education, whānau ora, and social service providers to ensure each support person understands the unique needs and history of the whānau each step of the way, all with an eye on quantifying the ‘social return on investment’.

SELFIE (Sustainable intEgrated care modeLs for multi-morbidity: delivery, FInancing and performancE) is a Horizon2020 EU project that will contribute to the current state of knowledge and provide applicable policy advice on integrated care for persons with multi-morbidity

Director of Business Operations

Senior Fellow

Junior Researcher in Integrated Care Development and Implementation

Inter-American Development Bank work to improve lives in Latin America and the Caribbean. Through financial and technical support for countries working to reduce poverty and inequality.

SUSTAIN is a cross-European research project and stands for sustainable tailored integrated care for older people in Europe.

In his first blog as part of his Fellowship with the Foundation, Dr Harry Pope discusses how the Australian government is looking for more “cost neutral” ways of delivering medical services within a primary care setting.

On July 14 2016, the ScalaAHA study made the results of the 2016 EIP on AHA Call for Reference Sites public. Five of CareWell’s pilot regions were officially awarded the “Reference Site” status: Basque Country, Feltre (as part of Veneto), Apulia, Zagreb and Powys (as part of Wales).

Our co-founder and CEO, Nick Goodwin spoke to guest editor for Healthcare Quarterly, Renee Lyons about examples of excellence in the adoption of integrated care around the world, as well as the challenges that lie ahead in realizing its full potential across health and social care systems.