The annual International Summer School on Integrated Care (ISSIC) is a special highlight in IFIC’s calendar and this year’s edition was no exception. Held in the last week of June on the premises of Wolfson College, Oxford, and with glorious summer weather, the intensive residential course brought together the most diverse group so far: 24 integrated care veterans and enthusiasts from 5 continents, 16 countries and all backgrounds took up the opportunity to discuss the challenges and trends in integrated care design, implementation and evaluation. The course takes its participants on a journey through the building blocks of integrated care with a combination of lectures, small group work, discussions and a site visit. Participants were senior professionals in the field of integrated care, clinicians, researchers and managers, and were thus experts in their own right, which added the unique opportunity of networking and learning with likeminded people facing similar challenges.
An undisputed highlight of every year is the site visit, which this year was hosted by the Herts Valleys Clinical Commissioning Group and their Director of Commissioning and Head of Integration. This day demonstrated integration in action, and how local stakeholders implement population health and place-based approaches, cope with sometimes incomprehensible national policies and mandates, and translate these into relevant service improvement strategies for the local communities.
ISSIC really does provide participants with the latest tools and insights into making integrated care happen. The date for ISSIC 2019 will be announced soon.
ISSIC 2018 was led by Dr Viktoria Stein, IFIC’s Director of Education and Training, and supported by international experts on varied areas as health and social care integration, financing and incentivizing, intermediate care and care transitioning