ICIC27 Conference Themes
From integration to impact: delivering better outcomes through data, coordination and population health
ICIC27 will examine how integrated care can move from ambition and system design to measurable and sustainable improvement in people’s lives, care experiences, population health and system performance. Across the four conference themes, we will consider how data, measurement, resilience and care coordination can work together to support more integrated, equitable and person-centred systems of health and care.
Integrated care is the connecting thread across every theme. We particularly welcome evidence and practical accounts that explain what was done, how it was implemented, who was involved, what changed, what enabled or obstructed progress, and what others can realistically learn. Contributions should consider impact, equity, prevention, implementation, scale, spread and sustainability. They should also recognise the knowledge and contribution of people with lived experience, families, carers, communities and the wider workforce wherever this is relevant to the work.
1. From Data Silos to Shared Intelligence: Digital Information as an Enabler of Integrated Care
Digital infrastructure and shared intelligence can help health and care systems work across organisational, professional and sector boundaries. Their value, however, depends on whether they improve coordination, support relationships and decision-making, and contribute to better outcomes for people and communities. This theme examines how data and digital transformation can enable integrated care in practice, rather than treating technology as an end in itself.
Areas of interest include shared electronic health and care records, interoperability, patient-generated data, personal wellbeing plans, artificial intelligence, predictive models, decision support, virtual care, learning health systems and the use of data to monitor and improve pathways across sectors. It also includes the use of shared intelligence across health, social care, public health, community services and other sectors that influence health and wellbeing.
We welcome contributions that examine trust, ethics, privacy, accountability, digital inclusion, workforce capability and the perspectives of health and care professionals, people with lived experience and communities. Submissions should show how digital approaches have been implemented and used, the difference they have made to care coordination or outcomes, and any barriers, unintended consequences or inequalities encountered. We are particularly interested in learning about the conditions required to adopt, scale and sustain digital approaches while maintaining public confidence and person-centred care.
2. Measuring what matters: Outcomes, Equity and Population Health in Integrated Care Systems
Integrated care requires ways of understanding whether systems are making a meaningful difference to people, families and communities. This theme focuses on how health and care systems define, measure and use outcomes that matter, moving beyond activity and service-volume measures towards a fuller understanding of health, wellbeing, experience, equity and population-level impact.
Population health is considered here as an intended outcome and value base for integrated care, as well as an approach to planning services. Areas of interest include population health management, prevention, risk stratification, health literacy, outcomes frameworks, patient- and carer-reported measures, value-based care, integrated commissioning and the use of data to inform priorities, resource allocation and system improvement.
We particularly welcome work that addresses health inequalities, social determinants of health, cultural context and the experiences of underserved communities. Contributions may explore how health, social care, public health, housing, education, community organisations and other partners develop a shared understanding of outcomes and accountability. Submissions should explain how measures were chosen, whose perspectives informed them, how information was used in decision-making and what changed as a result. We are also interested in the limitations and unintended effects of measurement, including burden, incomplete data and the risk of overlooking outcomes that are less easily quantified.
3. System Resilience through Integration: Preparing for, responding to and recovering from Crises
Pandemics, climate-related events, humanitarian emergencies, workforce pressures, financial constraints and other system shocks expose fragmentation and inequality across health and care systems. Resilience depends on the relationships, structures and capabilities that exist before a crisis, as well as the capacity to coordinate an effective response and sustain essential care during periods of disruption.
This theme examines how integrated care can strengthen preparedness, continuity, adaptation and recovery. Areas of interest include collaboration between primary care, hospitals, social care, public health, emergency services, local government, community organisations and civil society; integrated governance and information-sharing; workforce resilience; continuity of care for people with complex needs; and the role of communities in local preparedness and response.
We welcome contributions addressing civic, hospital, community and system resilience, including approaches that protect people experiencing poverty, displacement, homelessness, social isolation or other forms of vulnerability. The theme also encompasses the environmental sustainability of health and care and the longer-term sustainability of integrated care programmes, including leadership, financing and workforce requirements. Submissions should share practical learning about what strengthened or weakened the response, how trust and relationships were maintained, what failed or produced unintended consequences, and how the lessons have influenced subsequent policy, planning or service design.
4. Making the Case for Care Coordination: Demonstrating value and system efficiency in integrated care
Care coordination is one of the practical mechanisms through which integrated care becomes real for people. It can involve case management, multidisciplinary teams, care navigators, community connectors, social prescribing, home-based care, shared care planning and support for transitions between services. These functions require time, relationships, skills and resources, yet their contribution to outcomes, experience, equity and system performance is not always consistently understood or evaluated.
This theme examines what forms of care coordination work, for whom, in which contexts and under what conditions. It includes evidence on outcomes, cost-effectiveness, service use, avoidable admissions, support through digital/data, continuity of care, workforce roles and the experiences of people, families and carers. We welcome contributions from primary care, community and home care, mental health, social care, hospital services and cross-sector partnerships, as well as work involving children and young people, older people, people with dementia, people with multiple long-term conditions and communities experiencing disadvantage.
Submissions may also explore accountability, governance, financing, professional boundaries, standards and organisational responsibility for coordination. They should explain how the model for care coordination was implemented, how people and communities were involved, what value was created, when and if digital technologies and data added value, and where coordination added complexity or failed to deliver the intended benefits. We are particularly interested in approaches that can be adapted, scaled and sustained, including the use of digital/ data without losing the relational qualities on which effective coordination depends.