Blog

Celebrating the 4th anniversary of the approval of the WHO Framework on integrated and people-centred health services: progress and opportunities ahead

The second in IFIC’s “Care during and beyond the COVID-19 Crisis – Building integrated care as the cornerstone of our new reality” webinar series took place on 24 April. This webinar was organized in association with IFIC Australia and chaired by Professor Nick Goodwin, Chair of IFIC Australia and Director of the Central Coast Research Institute. The webinar focused on “Supporting Community Resilience in times of Public Health Crisis”

On 7th April 2020 the University of the Americas, Chile organised a Webinar on ‘Coronavirus: Lessons of a pandemic’ chaired by Prof Osvaldo Artaza in which fifteen panellists, experts in public health from the Americas, contributed to a discussion on the lessons learnt so far in the region.

How can we plan for a post pandemic future that better supports the poor and the underserved? Hard questions for any society, even tougher for low and middle income economies with high levels of social inequality and where the policy discourse is rarely followed by change at pace.

The first in IFIC’s “Care during and beyond the COVID-19 Crisis – Building integrated care as the cornerstone of our new reality” webinar series took place on Wednesday, 8th April and was attended by 250 delegates representing 40 countries.
In this webinar series we will be offering an opportunity for our network to hear about the integrated care approaches implemented and considerations being made around the world to address people’s continued care and support needs beyond the immediate public health issues and crisis management.

The core mission of IFIC Australia is to develop capacity and capabilities in Australia and the Asia Pacific Region in the design and delivery of integrated care. IFIC Australia seeks to achieve this by providing a platform to develop and exchange ideas and promote activities in the region in keeping with IFIC’s mission. Get up to date on all IFIC Australia’s recent activates below.

In October 2018 researchers and service providers met in Orange NSW to consider the challenges in addressing consistently poor mental health outcomes in rural and remote Australian communities. They concluded that rural mental health services are not working, despite increases in government funding.

A ship without a compass? The case for a more intimate relationship between research, policy and practice to enable the more successful adoption of integrated care

Galileo Pérez-Hernández, Board Member of IFIC and Nieves Ehrenberg, Senior Researcher discuss the value and importance of the Foundation’s work in Latin America and the efforts to develop a regional hub to support capacity building around integrated care across the region.

The transformation of healthcare systems is highly complex and, as such, the health and social care authorities in charge of system redesign are seeking support to improve their capacity for integrated care.

What a year we have had at the International Foundation for Integrated Care! We continue to grow at pace and our network extends to all corners of the world.

On 19 September the Belarus Red Cross Society (BRC) in cooperation with the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus, and with the support of the Swiss Red Cross, hosted an international conference entitled “Integrated home-based care: modern approaches and key challenges”.

Welcome to ERPIC!
To uphold our ethos of inclusivity of anyone early in a career, we are now officially the:
Emerging Researchers and Professionals in Integrated Care .
After our first formal year as the ERPIC Executive team (2018/19), we have all decided to stay on in order to complete our goals for the network. In order to balance our ERPIC commitments with our own research and professional responsibilities, we have reshuffled the team.

It’s been a busy time in IFIC Ireland this autumn with webinars, speaking engagements, our inaugural Accelerated Learning Program and we have some updates regarding our upcoming events. First, we are postponing the National Forum to May 2020 to allow the inclusion of a number of SláinteCare initiatives that are only now getting underway. All details are below and for anyone who has submitted an abstract, your paper will be considered for our alternative date.

The Children, Young People and Families Special Interest Group (CYF SIG) was launched at the IFIC International Conference on Integrated Care (ICIC18) in Utrecht in May 2018 as a response to the need to bring together health, education and social care researchers and professionals who are interested in aspects of integrated health and social care as it applies to children, young people and their families

IFIC Scotland, the Scottish hub for the International Foundation for Integrated Care, continues to expand its Scottish network of professionals, people with lived experience, academics, policy makers and organisations involved in implementing integrated care in Scotland.

At the end of September, Interim CEO Toni Dedeu and senior researchers Nieves Ehrenberg and Monica Sorensen will travel to Vancouver, Canada to the 3rd Transnational Forum for Integrated Community Care (TransForm) conference

From a global perspective the Australia health system is considered to be high quality, accessible and innovative delivering good patient outcomes.

I am delighted to be writing this blog as the new Chair of IFIC Australia and, in so doing, to pay tribute to our outgoing Chair – Peter McGeorge – for his commitment and enthusiasm over the past 2 years

A core objective of IFIC Australia is to help support the effective implementation of integrated care in policy and practice. The IFIC Australia initiative reflects the growing focus at State and Federal level on person-centred integrated care as a means to promote better value in the way health and care services are delivered

We all know that personal development takes time. It is a lifelong experience that allows us to incorporate new skills and qualities so that we can better face current and future challenges.

On June 4th 2019, IFIC met with the steering committee of the Transnational Forum on Integrated Community Care (TransForm) in Brussels.

On June 4th 2019, IFIC met with the steering committee of the Transnational Forum on Integrated Community Care (TransForm) in Brussels.

On the 17th April 2019, Nick Goodwin hosted a seminar at the University of Newcastle’s Sydney Campus to examine the international evidence and experience in coordination of care to older people with complex needs in the home environment.

ICIC19 in San Sebastian provided the first opportunity for VIGOUR partners to share their work with an external audience after the start of the project in January 2019.VIGOUR contributed to two important workshops on capacity and capability building to implement and scale-up integrated care programmes and solutions

With regret this is my last newsletter as Chair of IFIC Australia, as I stepped down from the role at our last Partners meeting in April.

Collaboration is at heart of integrated care. Responding to the differing needs, aspirations and contexts of individuals and their families is beyond the gift and expertise of a single profession.

Here Nieves Ehrenberg, Senior Researcher at the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC) provides a summary of a session focusing on funding and financing at ICIC19.

Here Nieves Ehrenberg, Senior Researcher at the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC) provides a summary of a session focusing on end of life care at ICIC19

Have you ever tried to cook something outside of the dish’s country of origin? It tastes different. No matter how thoroughly you read and follow a recipe. It still tastes different. The soil, the air, the water, in essence, the elements that affect the ingredients are different.

This growing following is testament to the continued interest in integrated care as one of the few truly promising routes to improving care and outcomes that is relevant for all people living in different contexts and settings.

The European Commission, Directorate-General Health and Food Safety, in collaboration with the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC), organised a workshop and a marketplace on “capacity building and technical support for implementing integrated care” in the context of the 19th International Conference on Integrated Care (ICIC19), 1-3 April 2019, in San Sebastian, Spain.

Seeing the San Sebastián Kursaal Congress Centre brimming with over 1,300 colleagues interested in integrated care, a record to date at ICIC conferences, was a great pleasure for everyone who has been involved in organising ICIC19 to a greater or less extent, particularly after a year of intense work.

The ICIC 2019 conference in Donostia-San Sebastian was a wonderful opportunity for Canadians to learn who in Canada is working to better understand, improve and advance integrated care.

In February of 2018 I got an email from Jodeme Goldhar, Executive Lead – Strategy and Innovation at The Change Foundation asking if I would be interested in speaking with her at a keynote address of ICIC2018 in Utrecht, Holland

In April 2019, I had the privilege of attending my 6th International Conference on Integrated Care (ICIC), the annual conference hosted by the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC).

Integrated care is a well-established concept amongst health policy makers and system leaders in Australia. However it is still considered by many to be a means of improving outcomes and experience of care for older adult populations. Children and young people are often left out of the conversation.

Integrated care is increasingly present in the priorities of Australia’s healthcare, from the work of our primary care services to the policy settings within government.

Having a place at the oval table with the flags of the G7 countries was intimidating. Nevertheless, the cordial greetings from the delegates showed their receptivity as they trickled in to take their seats for the Second G7 Working group of Health Experts meeting.

IFIC Australia has made solid progress since our last newsletter with work done by partners on developing case studies based on work in their services, responses to the Productivity Commission report on Integrated Care and planning for the 2nd Asia-Pacific (APIC) conference.

When IFIC Australia was founded in November 2015, one of its core objectives was to provide a platform through which to develop and exchange ideas to advance science and knowledge in Australia and on an international stage.

Today, 8th March is International Women’s Day and we would like to take the opportunity to once again recognise some of the great women who are advancing the science, knowledge and adoption of Integrated Care around the world. Here is a selection of some of our very best presentations that took place in 2018 from women leaders who are working tirelessly to make excellent patient care and experience a reality for people, their families and communities worldwide.

Jodeme Goldhar made an impact at ICIC18 in Utrecht when she stood alongside caregiver Carole Ann Alloway to deliver an impassioned keynote on Transformation Through Integration

Dr. h.c. Helmut Hildebrandt talks values, Rome-like circus arenas and business models as he sets out the five components required to replicate and transfer Integrated Care experiences.

IFIC’s Director of Education and Training is our third career panellist. Here she talks about her career path, the importance of embracing challenges and opportunities, and how being tenacious really does pay dividends

Hi all. The end of the year is approaching rapidly so it’s time to reflect on how IFICA has progressed over the course of past months and to take a peek at what’s planned for next year.

In the inspiring landscape of Orange, at the Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health of the University of Newcastle a group of integrated care enthusiasts gathered on Monday, 29 October, to start a week-long Accelerated Learning Course on “Designing and Implementing Integrated Care”.

On the 9th November, IFIC Australia hosted a symposium at NSW Parliament House examining international evidence and experience in the organisation, funding and evaluation of integrated care. Led by Dr Apostolos Tsiachristas (Oxford University), Dr Liz Schroeder (Macquarie University), and Dr Viktoria Stein (IFIC) the symposium explored trends and approaches in the organisation of care services to improve population health and sought to put the debate in the context of the Australian reality.

The International Foundation for Integrated Care has developed global reach in the last few years and now boasts a network of approximately 19,000 individuals and organisations across more than 50 countries worldwide. This growth has been particularly strong in the Asia-Pacific region where IFIC has been undertaking conferences

The Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy (MUCHE) is based in Sydney, Australia. It is a University led strategic initiative to undertake innovative research on health, ageing and human services.

Our CEO, Dr.Nick Goodwin, reflects on the prospects for the development of alliances in Australia following the Transformers 3 workshop programme held in Byron Bay and Coffs Harbour between 5th and 8th November 2018 in partnership with the Centre for Healthcare Knowledge and Innovation.

Economic evaluation for integrated care is a peculiar task, perhaps not unlike tunnelling through spaghetti in a black hole, or aptly described by Tsiachristas et al as ‘a stairway suspended somewhere between heaven and hell’

I began my career in the healthcare arena 40 years ago. I hold a pharmacy diploma from Philipps-University, Marburg, Germany, but instead of working in pharmacies I decided to concentrate on community work and prevention.

Making the Case for Integrated Community Care was the first in a series of conferences organised by TransForm, a joint initiative of the Network of European Foundations (NEF) supported by the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC).

The International Foundation for Integrated Care’s Solutions service has embarked on a major project supporting Estonia’s new Social reforms, awarded and funded by the European Commission’s Structural Reform Support Service (SRSS).

In the first of a new career panel Q&A series, Nuria Toro, from the World Health Organisation, based in Geneva, talks about the multiple roads she travelled in her career and offers advice to the next generation of researchers and practitioners in integrated care.

My year with IFIC was a highly enriching experience; I worked closely with Dr Viktoria Stein, IFIC’s Director of Education and Training, on a number of EU projects and was extensively involved in the development and subsequent launch of the Emerging Researchers in Integrated Care (ERIC) network.

A number of families living in our community experience many barriers to accessing health and social care. The problems that these families face are highly complex, often spanning over generations, and cannot be addressed by one agency alone.

Greetings! The past quarter has been a time of steady progress in the development of IFIC Australia (IFICA). Following on from what was a highly successful IFIC conference in Utrecht in May, a teleconference meeting of the Partners was held in June while, expressions of interest from new partners are being followed up, IFICA Webinars commenced and planning for an Accelerated Learning Program during the week of Oct 29th this year has been advanced.

Health services globally are under pressure from rising demand and associated fiscal pressures. It has been clear for some time that simply investing in our current hospital focused model of care is not the answer. To realise true value for investment and improve health outcomes we need to work differently.

As I write, the Australian media has been focussing in depth on drought in Australia for two weeks. It is as if those in metropolitan Australia have suddenly realised that rural farmers and communities are experiencing hardship and are at risk of psychological distress and mental illness.

Nine international faculty members, 23 participants from 16 countries, 16 World Cup matches and five days of glorious summer sunshine in Oxford. This was the recipe for the 2018 International Summer School on Integrated Care held at Wolfson College, Oxford, UK in June 2018.

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

Many stakeholders consider integrated care as fundamental in the reform of health and care systems in order to address the challenges associated with population ageing, the rising burden of chronic diseases and constraints in public resources.

SUSTAIN is coming to the end of a three-year collaboration between research partners, policy organizations and 13 clinical sites across nine countries including Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Spain, The Netherlands and the UK

This year’s International Conference on Integrated Care had tremendous provenance for me since it represented IFIC’s 18th birthday as an organisation in its original birthplace in Utrecht. As one of only two of the original members of that initial meeting in Almere to be present (the other being our former Chair, Guus Schrijvers)

Participants of the International Conference on Integrated Care (ICIC) visited Oss during one of the offered site visits in May 2018. Local residents and organizations create new solutions together in the district of Ruwaard, helping themselves and each other. A perfect example of integrated care.

The closing session on May 24 in Nieuwegein/Utrecht of the 18th International Conference on Integrated Care was the end of more than a year closely collaboration with IFIC staff, board, scientific committee. And, without exaggeration, it was a great pleasure! It was the first time that I was a co-host of an international event of this scale

ERIC’s goal is to create a platform for student researchers and young professionals working in, or interested in, the field of integrated care with 0-5 years of experience and/or in the process of doing their Master’s, PhDs or post-docs. Through supporting a community of early-career researchers across organisational and professional boundaries, we hope to not only bring people together to advance the science and knowledge behind integrated care, but also to enhance the adoption of health systems policy and practice.

Brief reflections from the IFIC Study Tour for the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health to Ireland and Catalunya. Recently I had the privilege and pleasure of working with Dr Nick Goodwin co-hosting a study tour for Optimity Advisors and their Client the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health looking at the health systems of Ireland and Catalonia in Spain.

Getting ill oneself is very instructive for a medical doctor (MD). When specializing as a young general practitioner I became quite ill myself. I was taken into hospital and had an operation

In 2008 Machteld Huber reported her research findings to the Health Council and to ZonMw. She had found that there are several possible levels of health. This struck a chord.

Organising comprehensive care for people is important. In healthcare jargon this is known as ‘multidisciplinary or coordinated care’, but this does not really cover it. Nor is the term ‘integrated care’, which connects different realms of life, entirely suitable.

IFIC Australia co-hosted an International Summer School in late March, aimed at supporting organisations to implement their integrated care strategies.

Developed in partnership with North Coast PHN and the Centre for Health Care Knowledge and Innovation, this event in Kingscliff was a sell-out, with a waiting list.

An online search tool to give researchers easy access to internationally published work on different aspects of Integrated Care has been launched.

Developed in partnership with North Coast PHN and the Centre for Health Care Knowledge and Innovation, this event in Kingscliff was a sell-out, with a waiting list.

An increasing number of organisations are looking to affiliate and partner with us, joining the growing ranks of the SW Sydney LHD and PHN, Western Sydney PHN and LHD (see below), North Coast PHN and Centre for Health Knowledge and Innovation, Central Coast LHD, NSW Agency for Innovation (ACI), Children’s Health Queensland and the Mater Research Institute – University of Queensland Centre for Health System Reform and Integration.

Western Sydney Local Health District (WSLHD) is proud to be a new member of the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC). Improving the way health and social policy service partners work together to improve the health and wellbeing of our population is a high priority in western Sydney

I’m writing this blog following a week’s visit to the NSW Central Coast by our friends and colleagues from IFIC Australia and IFIC. These times are strongly valued by our Local Health District and partners because they provide the opportunity to educate our teams, reflect on our integrated care journey to date and to plan the next steps

As a hospital librarian, I have a particular interest in approaches to searching for published literature on complex topics. And Integrated Care is the most complex topic I have tackled to date! In 2015 the Central Coast Local Health District (CCLHD) in NSW, Australia, where I work, became a demonstrator site for the NSW Ministry of Health Integrated Care strategy and I was asked to do searches of the biomedical literature to support a number of projects.

We had a fantastic first year for IFIC Scotland. We found a new home in the International Centre for Integrated Care (IC4IC), hosted by the University of the West of Scotland, with IFIC and the Health and Social Care ALLIANCE Scotland as our founding partners, and supported by an enthusiastic cross sector Advisory Board.

CEO Dr Nick Goodwin explains how IFIC’s new service, Integrated Care Solutions©, can support international clients transform current fragmented health systems and implement integrated care.“Over the past few years it has become clear that the integrated care movement has moved beyond making the case for change towards understanding and supporting how best to implement and manage integrated care programmes effectively.

Understanding how integrated delivery and payment models are being implemented is key in an era of value-based healthcare. Integrated care can be compared to a black box that may, or may not provide the ‘out of the box’ solutions needed to help improve patients’ care experiences and health, and to minimise costs

Earlier this month a small team representing the TransForm project landed in Hamburg for a series of site visits just as the temperature dropped to record levels across Europe.
The team, made up of Tinne Vandensande from the King Baudouin Foundation, IFIC’s Director of Education and Training Dr Viktoria Stein and Junior Researcher Henriikka Laurola

Today, 8th March is International Women’s Day and we would like to take the opportunity to once again recognise some of the great women who are advancing the science, knowledge and adoption of Integrated Care around the world. Here is a selection of some of our very best presentations that took place in 2017 from women leaders who are working tirelessly to make excellent patient care and experience a reality for people, their families and communities worldwide.

What is transitional care and how does it related to integrated care?
Transitional care is defined as a set of actions designed to ensure the coordination and continuity of healthcare as patients transfer between different locations or different levels of care within the same location. Transitional care and integrated care are interwoven with integrated care providing the infrastructure for how care is organized and transitional care providing the linkages between settings of care, inclusive of the patient’s home.

Places are filling up fast for this year’s International Summer School on Integrated Care. Aimed at professionals in the field of integrated care, clinicians, researchers and managers, this standalone course provides an intensive one-week of education and training on the theory and practice of Integrated Care.

Chairman of IFIC Australia Professor Peter McGeorge introduces our inaugural newsletter which will be published quarterly and will keep members, partners and colleagues up to date on all our IFIC news. Prof McGeorge is also a Consultant Psychiatrist at the Universities of NSW and Notre Dame (Sydney) and St Vincent’s Health Network.

The NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation (ACI) and IFIC Scotland held a joint workshop at the recent 1st Asia Pacific Conference on Integrated Care in Brisbane. The session titled ‘It’s All About Outcomes’ explored how to record and use personal outcomes to improve outcomes based consultations. The workshop also discussed how to use Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) and outcomes based conversations to enhance the experience and outcomes of care in different care settings and health systems.

Dr Harry Pope talks about his fellowship journey, key learnings and how he will use Integrated Care principles to support, develop and implement programmes that have local relevance.

Places are filling up fast for this year’s International Summer School on Integrated Care. Aimed at professionals in the field of integrated care, clinicians, researchers and managers, this standalone course provides an intensive one-week of education and training on the theory and practice of Integrated Care.

The International Foundation for Integrated Care sees itself supporting a global movement for change towards more integrated care systems that help to significantly improve quality of health and promote wellbeing to people and communities. My experience of the 1st Asia-Pacific Conference on Integrated Care was characterised by just how more appreciative, committed and open people are to thinking differently about health and care

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of attending the International Conference for Integrated Care in Ireland. It was such a great opportunity to participate in, and help create, international partnerships and information exchange. It was an experience that brought home the point that when we break down silos and barriers between countries and jurisdictions, then what’s happening on one side of the world can be put into practice on the other. That’s how change is made.

Over the course of the week from the 3rd to the 7th of July, the sun shone steadily on Wolfson College, Oxford. People were merrily floating on punts down the Cherwell river, flowers were in bloom and students were relaxing on picnic blankets under the shade of weeping willows. Fellow health and social care professionals, …

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The 1960s saw the emergence of cooperation in healthcare; a development that started with the GP. Teams were established. A second wave of cooperation emerged in the 1980s. This second wave concerned care for people with chronic conditions. Primary care and secondary care started to cooperate: shared care was born. The first ten conferences of the International Foundation of Integrated Care (1999-2009) focused on cooperation in primary care, elderly care and chronic care and continued to do so in the years after. However, integrated care also expanded to mental healthcare, palliative care, emergency care and birth care. Currently, global efforts are made to expand integrated care to a great number of new patient groups and to study aspects of it.

This blog is about intentionality. We intend to improve integrated care for local people – and improvement can be anywhere on the spectrum of small local change, to radical new models of care to transform population health outcomes – and we intend to invest time, energy and resources in doing this.

Almost 1200 people, from around the globe and with different perspectives, gathered together in Barcelona to participate at the 16th International Conference on Integrated Care organized by IFIC in cooperation with the Catalonian government.As in the past, many common challenges where discussed. This year however something new clearly emerged at the event: a stronger feeling of “action”.

On the 23-25 May 2016, our 16th International Conference on Integrated Care in Barcelona attracted an unprecedented number of delegates – over 500 oral and poster presentations, some 1200 registered participants from nearly 50 countries, and a further 600 persons per day watching events via the live stream. The conference even trended on Twitter with #icic16 reaching a ‘tweet reach’ of some 1.25 million – a sizeable impression indeed.

Tiohundra AB in Norrtälje, Sweden, was chosen as one of the sites for case studies within the area of mental health as part of the Project Integrate. On the 22nd of March 2016 Dr Nick Goodwin and Dr Viktoria Stein from the IFIC, visited Norrtälje in order to give some feed-back on the framework developed within the Project Integrate so far, as well as getting updated on the development of the integration of services in Norrtälje.

In the 1960s, John Fry, a British GP, introduced multidisciplinary cooperation for general practitioners, district nurses and social workers. In the Netherlands, his Dutch colleague, Frans Huygen, followed his example. The home team was born. Since then, this form of cooperation has become business as usual in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

In the United States, in 1967, Pediatrics first described the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model for use with special needs children who had complex medical, developmental and psychosocial needs, 1 then expanded this model to care for all children in 19922, as pediatricians became more focused on optimal health and development.

As integrated care is moving out of its niche and becoming increasingly popular as a guiding principle for the organization of services around people’s needs. It has been acknowledged that it is one thing to design integrated institutions and processes, but quite another to get people to actually use and apply them.

One of the key outcomes of Project INTEGRATE will be to provide managers and policy-makers with guidance on how to implement and sustain integrated care initiatives in practice.

Integrated care is an international movement for change. With these words Dr Nick Goodwin, IFIC CEO, concluded WCIC3, the 3rd World Congress on Integrated Care which took place on 20 and 21 November in Mexico City. What can we learn from these worldwide developments as discussed at WCIC3?

It is the year 2020. Breast cancer patient Christine is in hospital. She has metastasis. Christine has a talk with nursing specialist Florence. They discuss Christine’s future. Should she have more, less or other treatment? Or no treatment at all anymore and only palliative care?

Fiona Lyne, Director of Communications provides an overview of recent activities including highlights from ICIC15, plans for our next World Congresses and International Conferences as well as exciting developments in European integrated care projects and plans for the member’s network online platform.

Integrated care is regarded as the best response to new challenges in health care delivery, which has risen due to aging population, increased prevalence of chronic diseases and multi-morbidity for the gain in quality of care and efficiency.

The Spanish Observatory on Integrated Care (Observatorio de Modelos Integrados en Salud, OMIS) has just published the first annual report on integrated care experiences in Spain. The report collates and classifies the practices registered at the Observatory website over 2014, highlighting their key innovative and transformative elements in providing integrated social and health care to …

I am thrilled to be supporting IBM Smarter Care at the 15th International Conference for Integrated Care (ICIC15) for what is going to be another stimulating event.

Three hundred and ninety three municipalities, 120 GP cooperatives, 31 financial agencies for long term care (FALTC’s), nine experimental gardens…

We explored current approaches to service integration and the outcomes that people with long-term neurological conditions (LTNCs) want to achieve.

The best abstract award at WCIC2 which took place in Sydney, Australia was presented to: Robert Peter Leitner, Bruce Chenoweth, Lif O’Connor, Jurgen Wille, Anne Funke, all from South Eastern Sydney Local Health District, Australia, and Rhoshel Lenroot, from University of New South Wales, Australia Title: Metro-Regional Intellectual Disability Network (MRID.net) A Statewide Collaborative Multidisciplinary Care Model The abstract stated that …

IFIC poster prizes acknowledge the valuable contributions the authors and researchers submitting these abstracts make to enhance integrated care science and practice. For having the courage to turn negative study results into a positive learning experience and strengthening health economic research in integrated care, the best poster award of the Second World Congress of Integrated …

Project INTEGRATE will describe how integrated care can be of added value to patients with chronic conditions while taking into account case, care, quality assessment and health system complexity. Today, there is no is universally accepted definition of integrated care. Integrated care is a concept that is polymorphous in its kind and that has been …

14th ICIC 2014 “Taking Integrated Care Forward: People, Policy and Practice” held in Brussels in April 2014, was a great opportunity for Project INTEGRATE to present and share, with international experts on integrate care, case study findings on four integrated care experiences in different systems and organisations: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Hospital Clinic- Spain, …

Chaired by Hernan Montenegro, Health Systems Advisor, WHO, Geneva Switzerland This session, which took place at WCIC2 in Sydney, offered participants a chance to reorient themselves on a core issue in integrated care: collaboration. Many people working to implement integrated care can easily get caught up in the technical issues of developing or changing an existing …

20 poster presentations covering horizontal and vertical integration of care, with global and European applicability.  Some were people centred and bottom-up, with others focusing on systems and services and describing top-down approaches to integrated care. Many were work in progress so we will look forward to further presentations and results at future conferences.  The panel, …

I attended the session on “Organisational models and care pathways” run by the colleagues from EIP AHA B3 Action Group. The first thing I found amazing and interesting to learn was that Scotland has now launched legislation on social and healthcare integration. It is now a Public Bodies (Joint Working Scotland) Act 2014, (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2014/9/pdfs/asp_20140009_en.pdf) and …

A great start to International Conference on Integrated Care 2014 On the first afternoon of this year’s International Conference on Integrated Care 2014 there was a session focussed on the service user or patient in the context of integrated care. The three presenters took the audience on a journey by first seeking to define person centred care …

Session P5-B – Empowering people through integrated care – patient empowerment The session offered delegates an opportunity to take part to an open discussion on patient empowerment and share their views and knowledge on the matter with the high level panellist representing stakeholders of all categories: Institutions, patient organizations, academia, health professionals and EC experts. …

Integrated care in practice: collaborative practice in integrated care Chaired by Hernan Montenegro, Health Systems Advisor, WHO, Geneva Switzerland This session offered participants a chance to reorient themselves on a core issue in integrated care: collaboration. Many people working to implement integrated care can easily get caught up in the technical issues of developing or …

The 14th International Conference on Integrated Care saw the launch of IFIC’s Integrated Care Award for outstanding contribution to the promotion of the science, knowledge or application of integrated care in policy and practice around the World. For 2014, the IFIC Committee decided to present the inaugural award to Pim Valentijn from the Jan van …

” Attending the ICIC for the second time I was once again inspired to take Integrated Care forward. Every year after the conference I feel more determined to keep pushing this agenda in Portugal. This year the conference was even more satisfying once the poster I presented on behalf of the team was awarded a …

Objective for Case Studies In order to gain a better understanding of different integrated care scenarios, four cases studies have been undertaken in Project INTEGRATE. They will provide a description of the type of integration achieved and the influences which resulted in this type of integration, in a way which will allow comparisons and conclusions …

Project INTEGRATE will describe how integrated care can be of added value to patients with chronic conditions while taking into account case, care, quality assessment and health system complexity. Today, there is no is universally accepted definition of integrated care. Integrated care is a concept that is polymorphous in its kind and that has been …

Thursday, September 19, 2013 – 09:45 to Friday, September 20, 2013 – 16:45 European Health Policy Group Autumn 2013 Meeting Date: 19 – 20 September 2013, London The autumn meeting of the European Health Policy Group (EPHG) will be on the theme of integrated care. They are considering papers on initiatives and ideas on integrating …

Changing Societal Health Needs As the prevalence of chronic conditions continues to increase, along with the rapid ageing of the population, it brings with it the increasing challenge of sustainability in our healthcare systems worldwide. In European alone, chronic non-communicable diseases represent almost 80% of the total burden of disease. Active and healthy ageing is …

Unfortunately for us researchers a big and complex project like Project Integrate can generally not be boiled down to one big question with one big answer that can be discovered in one big attempt. A big and complex project needs to be broken down into many small (but still complex) parts. And these parts need …