IPCHS. Integrated People-Centred Health Services

Publications

This growing repository holds WHO documents, scientific publications, policy documents, implementation reports, presentations and others with information and insights about integrated people-centred health services. Share your publication by clicking “Add publication”.

June 1, 2020 Global

Implementation of the Integrated Care of Older People (ICOPE) App in Primary Care: New Technologies in Geriatric Care During Quarantine of COVID-19 and Beyond

The COVID-19 pandemic due to a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in December 2019 has rapidly spread worldwide. The mortality rate is about 2.3% in general population, with high human-to-human transmission of 0.41 (credible interval [0.27, 0.55]), and nasopharyngeal asymptomatic carriers act as vectors within the population. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the pandemic on March 2020, and established objectives and action plan. First, WHO aimed at limiting the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, which required large isolation actions (country borders lockdown and individual quarantine). Second, WHO aimed at guiding and supporting the different health care systems across countries ...

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May 29, 2020 Global

Framework Implementation of the inspire ICOPE-Care program in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) in the Occitania Region

Limiting the number of dependent older people in coming years will be a major economic and human challenge. In response, the World Health Organization (WHO) has developed the «Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE)» approach. The aim of the ICOPE program is to enable as many people as possible to age in good health. To reach this objective, the WHO proposes to follow the trajectory of an individual’s intrinsic capacity, which is the composite of all their physical and mental capacities and comprised of multiple domains including mobility, cognition, vitality / nutrition, psychological state, vision, hearing.

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May 25, 2020 Americas Europe Western Pacific Global

The Odyssey of Integration: Is Management its Achilles’ Heel?

The importance of management to the implementation of integrated care is recognised in evidence and practice. Despite this recognition, there is a lack of clarity about what ‘good’ management of integrated care looks like, if the competences are different to management for ‘traditional’ care, and how such competences can be acquired.

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May 20, 2020 Global

Universal access to essential health information: accelerating progress towards universal health coverage and other SDG health targets

The information that people need to protect and manage their own health and the health of those for whom they are responsible is a fundamental element of an effective people-centred healthcare system. Achieving universal health coverage (UHC) requires universal access to essential health information. While it was recently recognised by the World Medical Association, universal access to essential health information is not yet reflected in official monitoring of progress on UHC for the sustainable development goals (SDGs). In this paper, we outline key features that characterise universal access to essential health information and indicate how it is increasingly achievable. 

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May 19, 2020 South-East Asia Europe Eastern Mediterranean Global

HealthBuddy: a new chatbot to engage with communities in Europe and central Asia on COVID-19

HealthBuddy, a multilingual interactive chatbot, is the newest tool to be launched as a resource for countries in Europe and central Asia in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The chatbot, developed by WHO/Europe and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO), will help countries in the region to access accurate information, and counter misinformation surrounding the virus.

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May 15, 2020 Global

Realising the True Value of Integrated Care: Beyond COVID-19

Stronger and more resilient care systems and communities are better able to cope, respond and adapt to new challenges and crises such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. They are able to quickly come together to ‘act as one’ and collaborate across disciplines and sectors towards a common goal. This is the essence of integrated care and this is what the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC) stands for – creating a more connected health and care system.

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April 24, 2020 Europe Global

Covid-19: a remote assessment in primary care

Novel coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) is an urgent and spreading threat whose clinical and epidemiological characteristics are still being documented. With a view to containing covid-19, a shift from in-person to remote consulting is occurring. Clinicians are thus faced with a new disease and a new way of interacting with patients. This article will present some guiding principles on how to choose between telephone and video appointments, how to conduct a “query covid” consultation remotely, and considerations when arranging follow-up and next steps.

 

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April 24, 2020 Global

The key role of palliative care in response to the COVID-19 tsunami of suffering

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has brought a tsunami of suffering that is devastating even well resourced countries. The disease has wreaked havoc on health systems and generated immense losses for families, communities, and economies, in addition to the growing death toll. In this most challenging time, health responders can take advantage of palliative care know-how to focus on compassionate care and dignity, provide rational access to essential opioid medicines, and mitigate social isolation at the end of life and caregiver distress. 

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April 24, 2020 Global

Not a luxury: a call to maintain sexual and reproductive health in humanitarian and fragile settings during the COVID-19 pandemic

About 1·8 billion people live in fragile contexts worldwide,1 including 168 million individuals in need of humanitarian assistance. Approximately a quarter of those in fragile contexts are women and girls of reproductive age. Experience from past epidemics in these settings has showed that discontinuing healthcare services deemed unrelated to the epidemic response resulted in more deaths than did the epidemic itself. The COVID-19 pandemic will magnify the risks inherent to resource reshuffling at the expense of other services; however, sexual and reproductive health cannot be viewed as a luxury.

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April 17, 2020 Global

What do the healthcare experiences of people with long-term conditions tell us about person-centred care? A systematic review.

Growing numbers of people now live with long term conditions. For each person, the challenges are multiple and unique to that individual. In recognition of this, health policy places greater emphasis on the delivery of person-centred care (PCC). However, patients report declining levels of such care. One reason for this may be a mismatch between patient and professional/policy understanding of PCC. PCC does not depend on the efforts of the clinician alone, but results from a collaboration with the patient and needs to be enabled by the wider organisational and educational systems.

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