How do you honour a man who has been at the forefront of integrated care for the past three decades, without whom none of us would be her today, who co-founded the International Journal for Integrated Care in 2000, the International Network for Integrated Care in 2003 and its successor, the International Foundation for Integrated Care, in 2014 to ensure that integrated care researchers and practitioners from around the world have a platform and a home to connect, to share and the learn together? You invent an Award for him!
I met Nick on a sunny spring day in 2008 at an integrated care symposium organized by Guus Schrijvers in Utrecht. I had just started my PhD on integrated care in Austria and had googled to find international events and contacts to connect with experts in the field, and this was the only event that came up. I remember vividly how Nick took the time to take a walk with me and tell me about the field of integrated care, its challenges and development thus far, and his own journey. He told me that the beauty of integrated care lay in the diversity of people and that if he, a geographer by training, had found a way, I would do so too.
Nick has advised regional and national governments, international organisations and NGOs, and has written many policies, strategies, editorial, research articles, grant applications and book chapters. As of April 2025, he is the most cited author in integrated care in the world, and in 2016, he received the Avedis Donabedian International Award from the namesake’s foundation during a beautiful ceremony in Barcelona.
But his true legacy is (here in this room) at the conference and around the world, with the many people he mentored, advised, challenged, guided, collaborated with and inspired. There are many words used to describe Nick – charming, smooth, inspiring were just a few mentioned by his colleagues – and there are many quotes and references I could recount to illustrate his thinking and his work, but there is one image that keeps coming back to me and which Nick often used to close his presentations: it pictures a bear and a lion happily ambling through a beautiful and tranquil landscape under the caption “Integrated care doesn’t occur naturally, it requires hard work.” For me, this captures the essence of Nick’s work.
Nick, you have dedicated most of your professional life, and a lot of your private life, to improving the lives of others. You have been a mentor, a teacher, a leader and a friend to many people in our network, and I am truly honoured that I may say thank you in the name of all of us for everything you have done and hand over to you the first (and probably last) Nick Goodwin Award!
Dr Viktoria Stein
VM Integrated Care