June 1, 2015 Western Pacific Publication

People-centred health care

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in the patient’s perspective of health care and how health systems can better respond to the needs of all health care stakeholders and constituencies in a holistic manner. Previous recommendations of Member States through the WHO Regional Committees for the Western Pacific and South-East Asia reflect the need to pursue work in the following: equity and fairness into policies; the development of programmes firmly grounded in ethical principles; the quality of health care and patient safety; human dignity, patients’ rights and needs, and the role of families, culture and society; the broader psychosocial and cultural determinants of health; and ethics related to medical practice, research and education. These issues have widespread relevance and significance. Improving health care quality and safety and enhancing the people’s experience of care require attention not only to health system design but also to the focus ...

June 1, 2015 Global Publication

What is person-centered health care?

What is person-centred health care? There are many definitions of person-centred (patient-or client-centred) health care in the literature. The Victorian Department of Human Services (2003) defines person-centred care as ‘treatment and care provided by health services [that] places the person at the centre of their own care and considers the needs of the older person’s carers’. The main features of person-centred health care derived from the literature can be encompassed within the concept of partnership. The overriding message is that person-centred care is about a collaborative and respectful partnership between the service provider and user. The service provider respects the contribution the service user can make to their own health, such as their values, goals, past experience, and knowledge of their own health needs, and the service user respects the contribution the service provider can make, including their professional expertise and knowledge, information about the options available to the ...

June 2, 2015 Global Publication

Integrated care: meaning, logic, applications, and implications – a discussion paper

Integrated care is a burgeoning field. As is often the case in new areas of inquiry and action, conceptual clarification is demanded. Without such attention, it would be difficult to advance theory and practice in this increasingly important professional arena. In the following discussion paper, the authors explore the intellectual territory of integrated care, and underscore the need for a patient-centric imperative and meaning. They also examine the practical applications and implications arising from their views. The intention is to stimulate fruitful dialogue and debate about what ‘integrated care’ could and should be.

April 4, 2016 Europe Publication

Age UK’s Personalised Integrated Care Programme: where are we now?

Age UK launched its personalised integrated care programme in 2012 in Cornwall. In this post, published in its blog, some data about its evaluation are shown and discussed.

The main objectives of this programme are to improve health and wellbeing of older people by tailoring services to meet their needs, improve the experience and quality of care received, and to reduce unplanned hospital admissions amongst older people with multiple long-term conditions.

The evaluation showed a 31% reduction in all hospital admissions, a 26% reduction in emergency ones, and a 20% improvement in older people’s health and wellbeing. In addition, one fifth of aged people participating in the programme became volunteers in order to be able to improve other people’s health and wellbeing.

In 2015, this programme expanded to nine more places across the United Kingdom, a substantial challenge because, as it is said in the post, the needs ...

May 12, 2016 Global Publication

Learning about patients’ experiences of care in their own homes

Patient’s experiences are a main factor in order to design how health care services should work. Many different ways of measuring these experiences have been developed; in this post hosted by the King’s Fund Blog, Jo Maybin explains how they have used face-to-face interviews in patient’s home, what difficulties they have found and what they have been able to investigate thanks to this kind of methodology.

As it is said in the post, patient’s own homes interviews enabled the interviewers to get in contact with external carers, to analyze their point of view in relation to health care coordination and integration, and to identify what aspects should be improved in order to increase patient’s satisfaction with the care provided.

On the other hand, this post lists some of the difficulties found when doing face-to-face interviews, specially in what concerns to the amount of resources or ...

May 12, 2016 Europe Publication

Using patient feedback to drive improvement

Increasing amount of information is being collected from patients after they are discharged in a hospital; this information can be used mainly in three ways: (I) to analyse how care is being performed, (II) to publish data in order to share information with general public and to enhance government’s accountability, and (III) to implement reforms in hospital activities and way of working.

In this post, the author defends the idea that not enough information is being used to make patient experience have actual influence at changing how health care organization work at a local level. Organizational leadership and patient-centered culture are said to be critical to use patient feedback to drive improvement.

The author, Joni Jabal, ends this post urging NHS to use its “NHS inpatient survey” to make NHS become an actual people-centered organization.

May 15, 2016 Europe Publication

Engaging patients, carers and communities for the provision of coordinated/integrated health services: strategies and tools

This paper (working document) illustrates strategies aimed at engaging patients, their families, and carers to be an active part of health disease management and treatment, guiding them to make informed choices. Furthermore, it outlines strategies aimed at empowering populations to adopt responsible health lifestyles and act as protagonists in influencing determinants of health in a human-rights based approach to health. Exemplary tools for each type of strategies are proposed to support the realization of coordinated and integrated health services delivery.

May 25, 2016 Global Publication

ICIC16 – 16th International Conference on Integrated Care

The conference will be held in Barcelona from the 23th to the 25th of May and will bring together researchers, clinicians and managers from around the world who are engaged in the design and delivery of integrated health and social care. They will share experience and the latest evidence about integrating Public Health, Health and Social Care and the New roles and Possibilities for Hospitals, producing Positive and Curative Integrated Mental and Physical Care, mobilising key enablers like policy making and Mobile and Digital Health Solutions, and investment in an Integrated Care Workforce, clinical leadership and coproduction with individuals, careers, communities and populations.

The conference can follow with the hashtag #ICIC16 and will be streaming live to the global audience in English and Spanish. It is possible to take part in the discussions and ask questions to the speakers from your own home or from your institution as an individual ...

May 26, 2016 Global Publication

Sixty-ninth World Health Assembly (WHA69)

The sixty-ninth World Health Assembly (WHA) takes place in Geneva from the 23rd to the 28th of May, that 3500 delegates from WHO’s 194 Member States – including a large proportion of the world’s health ministers - are attending.

It began with a a discussion on WHO reform and a general plenary discussion about “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. Over the next days, delegates will discuss a wide range of agenda items, including decisions relating to WHO’s response to health emergencies and the International Health Regulations, noncommunicable diseases and factors that can put people at risk of these diseases – or reduce their level of risk. Important decisions will be made relating to childhood obesity and maternal, child and young child nutrition, as well as air pollution, tobacco control, violence and road safety.

As part of the global drive to support and strengthen health systems, delegates ...

June 27, 2016 Global News

4th International Congress of Person Centered Medicine

The 4th International Congress of Person Centered Medicine will be held in Madrid, Spain, from the 7-9 of November 2016, in Campus of the Francisco de Vitoria University. 

The main topics for this congress are:

• Person Centered Medical Education: Need for a new Model
• Role of Humanities and Humanism in Medical Education
• Doctor – Patient Clinical Communication as “core theme” in Humanizing Clinical Practice
• Humanism and Bioethics in Medical Education
• Clinical Simulation in Medical Education
• Person Centered Medicine: Perspective from Healthcare Systems
• Person Centered Medicine: Perspective from Perspective from patients

Deadline for abstracts: September 15, 2016

Preliminary Scientific Program

For more information: Website

May 22, 2019 Europe Multimedia

Highlights from ICIC19 in San Sebastian

The 19th International Conference on Integrated Care took place from 1-3 April 2019 in San Sebastian and was attended by 1400 delegates representing 60 countries.

With the overarching theme ‘Evaluating and implement models of integrated people-centred services’, the conference is a partnership of OSAKIDETZA – Basque Health Service, Bioef, Ministry for Health of the Basque Government the City Council of Donostia-San Sebastian and the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa. The conference brought together researchers, clinicians and managers from around the world who are engaged in the design and delivery of integrated health and social care.

19th International Conference on Integrated Care (ICIC19) Highlights from Foundation for Integrated Care on Vimeo.

To watch the video

July 23, 2019 Europe News

ICIC20 – 20th International Conference on Integrated Care (Virtual Edition)

The 20th International Conference on Integrated Care (ICIC20) will take place virtually, the dates 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th September 2020.

The conference will build on themes from previous years and in particular would like to include in this year's programme papers that are focusing on the following areas:

• Meeting the challenges of integrated care in early development, childhood and transitional care in adolescents
• Integrated community care approaches for better management of diseases with a stigmatizing effect, including for example mental health and addiction issues 
• Better managing the care of vulnerable populations including for example war veterans, and preventing isolation and loneliness 
• Integrating survivorship, caring for carers, palliative and end-of-life care 
• Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital tools in the people-centred integrated care

Nov. 26, 2019 Africa Publication

End-line Assessment of Integrated People-Centered Health Services in Nelson Mandela Metro Municipality, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Since 2013, the USAID Applying Science to Strengthen and Improve Systems (ASSIST) Project has been working closely with the South African Department of Health (DOH) and its partners in five provinces to accelerate the reduction of morbidity and mortality through improving access, utilization, and satisfaction with essential HIV services. Drawing on its partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) Service Delivery and Safety Department to promote people-centered care as an essential pillar of health service quality, ASSIST secured support from the USAID Office of Health Systems to pilot WHO’s global framework on integrated people-centered health services (IPCHS) in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan District in Eastern Cape Province.

The pilot project consisted of a baseline assessment to harvest patient, provider, and decision maker perceptions and satisfaction regarding integration and patient centeredness in HIV services at onset of the project; training in quality improvement and IPCHS concepts and methodology; facility-based identification ...

Nov. 26, 2019 Africa Publication

Towards Integrated People-centered Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Care in Mali

The World Health Organization (WHO), through its Framework on integrated people-centred health services adopted by Member States in 2016, has called for a fundamental shift in the way health services are funded, managed, and delivered.

In Mali, the USAID Applying Science to Strengthen and Improve Systems (ASSIST) Project has been working with the Ministry of Health since 2013 to contribute to reducing maternal, neonatal, and child mortality and morbidity. As part of ASSIST’s larger partnership with WHO to contribute to the development of IPCHS in different contexts and settings to promote learning, the project proposed to conduct a pilot project in Mali to assess the promotion of people-centered approaches in clinical consultations by health providers during pregnancy and delivery at peripheral health centers.

June 5, 2020 Europe Event

ICIC20 – 20th International Conference on Integrated Care (Virtual Edition)

 

Introducing the ICIC20 Virtual Conference taking place over 4 days in September 2020. The ICIC20 Virtual Conference is a relaunch of the 20^th International Conference on Integrated Care that was due to take place in Šibenik, Croatia in April. The new edition will take place as a virtual offer bringing over 100 hours of digital integrated care content presented through the innovative Events OnAir portal. This is an exciting new platform that allows a broad range of interactive experiences to rival any physical event. The ICIC20 Virtual Conference will allow connection from anywhere in the world, removing the cost and time associated barriers involved in attending the physical conference.

IFIC and our ICIC20 Virtual Conference co-hosts, the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Croatia, the City of Zagreb, Health Center Zagreb – Centar, the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, University of Zagreb, Libertas International University and the Catholic ...

Aug. 6, 2020 Western Pacific, Global Publication

Realising the value of integrated care in Australia beyond

PROFESSOR NICK GOODWIN, Director, Central Coast Research Institute for Integrated Care, University of Newcastle and Central Coast LHD. Co-Founder, International Foundation for Integrated Care

 

Over the past decade there has been a growing realisation of the need to reform health and care systems in Australia to better coordinate care, improve quality and promote value.

For example, recent reports such as the 2017 Productivity Commission’s Shifting the Dial and the 2018 CSIRO report Future of Health criticised the existing disease-based, episodic, medicallydominated and institutionally- led characteristics of the Australian health system as being unable to respond effectively to the new challenges of age-related chronic illnesses and the very high percentage of Australians living in ill-health.

A more person-centred and integrated approach was required, including a shift in funding away from rewarding volume to incentivising value, empowering consumers, addressing health inequality, unlocking the value of digital health, and building integrated care ...

Oct. 30, 2020 Global Publication

Research in Integrated Care: The Need for More Emergent, People-Centred Approaches

The International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC) recently celebrated its 20^th International Conference (ICIC20) through a virtual event that brought together patients and carers, academics, care professionals, NGOs, policy-makers and industry partners from across the global integrated care community.

The International Journal for Integrated Care (IJIC) used this opportunity to host a workshop on published research in integrated care, specifically to reflect on the quality of existing scientific enquiry. A lively discussion on the current state of integrated care research concluded that there remained significant shortcomings to current methodologies – for example, in their ability to provide the depth of understanding required to support the knowledge needed to best inform policy and practice, particularly when addressing people-centredness.

In part, the debate recognized how the nature of existing research funding, and prevailing attitudes and preferences towards certain research methodologies, were partly to blame (as has been noted by IJIC previously. The ...

Feb. 22, 2022 Global Publication

Patient-centered care in musculoskeletal practice: Key elements to support clinicians to focus on the person

Musculoskeletal rehabilitation, including physiotherapy, needs to move towards a broader biopsychosocial understanding of musculoskeletal conditions and the delivery of high-value care for people with persistent pain conditions, in which a patient-centered approach is a key feature. However, it has been reported that clinicians experience difficulties with integrating patient-centered care principles into their clinical practice. Based on a focused symposium about patient-centered care for patients with musculoskeletal conditions, held during the online 2021 World Physiotherapy Congress, the purpose of this article is to share key elements of the content of this symposium with a wider audience, aimed at enabling clinicians to enhance patient-centeredness in their current practice. These key elements include establishing meaningful connections, deciding together and self-management support. Moreover, challenges on patient-centered care in low/middle income countries will be discussed and recommendations to implement patient-centered care in clinical practice will be provided.

Highlights

• Patient-centered care is important in people ...

Oct. 20, 2023 Europe Event

The 24th International Conference on Integrated Care (ICIC24)

The 24th International Conference on Integrated Care (ICIC24) in partnership with IFIC Ireland and the International Journal of Integrated Care (IJIC) and supported by the Department of Health, Northern Ireland and Visit Belfast will take place in ICC Belfast on 22-24 April 2024, with the overarching theme ‘Taking the leap: making integrated care a reality for people and communities’, the conference will bring together leaders, researchers, clinicians, managers, community representatives, patients and caregivers from around the world who are engaged in the design and delivery of integrated health and care.