ICIC23 – 23rd International Conference on Integrated Care

Antwerp, Flanders – May 22-24 2023

Care in action: how to work together, a participatory approach

The 23rd International Conference on Integrated Care (ICIC23) in partnership with the Flanders Agency for Health and Care and Visit Flanders took place at Flanders Meeting & Convention Center Antwerp, Flanders on 22-24 May 2023. With the overarching theme ‘Care in action: how to work together, a participatory approach’, the conference brought together leaders, researchers, clinicians, managers, citizens, patients and caregivers from around the world who are engaged in the design and delivery of integrated health and social care.

The conference operated as a hybrid event. While we were very excited to be physically together in Antwerp, the hybrid format meant that people who did not wish to travel could join and present at the conference via video link and present their paper digitally.

Conference Themes

1 Change management implementation: macro, meso and micro level

What is the role of primary care in the implementation of integrated care?
How can we reinforce the role of primary and community care as a key component of integrated care?
How can structural reforms support multistakeholder and multilevel integrated care implementation?
How can we enable health and social care integration in different contexts?
What is the impact of decentralised and centralised care organisation – for example in the fragmentation of care, multilevel governance or freedom of choice?
How can we ensure people’s engagement to work towards people as partners?

2 Person-centred care: focus on integration of goals and needs

How can we implement goal-orientated care as an aspect of person centred care?
What tools, skills and enablers do we need to design care plans based on their goals?
How do the principles of integrated care support the respect and compliance with people’s goals and the engagement with their care partners and families?
How do we shift the working environment from multidisciplinary dialogue to transdisciplinary teams?
How can we enable case management and care coordination in all contexts?
How can different financial options create an enabling environment to support case management, care coordination and goal-orientated care?
How can digital innovation support personalised and goal-orientated care?

3 Collaboration : factor for successful implementation of integrated care

How can we co-design care journeys that respond to people’s needs?
How can we ensure integrated care transitions between organisations and care levels?
How can we best support people in the community after discharge – including medication safety and follow-up by pharmacist?
How can we integrate whole person perspective in the care plans – with special interest in mental health?
How can we ensure we deliver care that includes the whole life journey from birth to end-of life and all the care needs from prevention to treatment, care and support?
How can we co-design and agree on the ethical values and principles guiding shared decision-making processes?
How can we ensure that continuous learning and evaluation are part of all the implementation processes?

4 Engaging everybody: caring neighbourhoods and compassionate communities

How can we enable and support caring communities and neighbourhood to support people?
Which initiatives ensure that people in need of care or assistance can live at home longer?
How can we leverage the learning of the past few years and make positive changes sustainable?
How can we ensure our care and support systems identify and reach people that most needs?
How can the whole system support and enable the safeguard of the social determinants of health at the community level?
How can we support people to have healthy, meaningful, creative and fulfilling lives?

5 Population health approach: leverage for integrated care

How can we ensure risk assessment and stratification are included in all the population health approaches?
How can national and regional care strategies and policies support population health approach?
How can digital innovations such as digital care support plans enable improved population health approaches?
How can we know our population better to adapt population health initiatives to the characteristics and needs of the local population?
How can we collect and include data on a broader range of indicators including social care and support, psychological and mental needs among others, to identify the needs of the population to plan better support services?
What are the training and education needs for better integrated care at all levels including population health management?
How can we reach out to the more vulnerable groups to ensure an inclusive approach?