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ICIC22: It’s the people that matter

Denmark is among the international frontrunners when it comes to integrated healthcare services. That’s why it was the perfect place for the 22nd International Conference on Integrated Care held in May. Vilans joined experts on Integrated Care from across the globe in Odense to discuss themes such as; personalised and person-centred health and care, digitised and digital support of health and care, innovative collaborations, and COVID recovery and its impact on health and care systems.

Integrated Care Researcher, Jessica Michgelsen (Vilans) visited the conference:“Most countries face a common challenge today; a rise in the number of chronically ill people combined with limited resources. Integrated care solutions with a focus on individual needs can help combat this challenge. People do not always receive personalised care and one-size solutions don’t fit all. It is important that health and care services are co-designed with individuals, families, carers and the wider community.”

“There were a lot of interesting tracks to follow. Particularly, one remark stood out for me from Dr. Viktoria Stein (Leiden University Medical Centre) about why it is so hard to organise integrated care. She suggested that it is because we focus our research too much on the system and not enough on the people. It is the care professionals who must make the change in practice but often, challenges for collaboration remain.

While in some cases care professionals have permission to collaborate and to carry out integrated care pilot programmes, it may not always be in their own interest to do so, as they would have to share, for example, decision-making power and funding streams. Dr. Stein’s advice is that we should look at these motivations first before we look at systemic changes.”

Jessica Michgelsen, Integrated Care Researcher, Vilans

20 years of integrated care

The Vilans team was led by CEO Mirella Minkman and Dir. Strategy and Development, Henk Nies. Prof. Minkman chaired a plenary session that looked at 20 years of integrated care worldwide.

Minkman: “We need more focus on interdisciplinary, inter-organisational and international research. Going forward we need to move from research to practice by applying more mixed-methods that are context-based. We must integrate research into practice and combine social and health data if we are to come up with the best solutions.”

Also on the panel were representatives from the Netherlands, Australia, Scotland and the UK who reviewed policies, trends and challenges facing the sector, and shared their vision for the future.

Vilans topics presented during the 3-day event

  • The scale of integrated care using exemplary narratives to highlight the differences and similarities between countries concerning scale.
  • The role of values in integrated care networks.
  • The role of behavioural aspects in integrated care (demonstrated by playing a serious game with the conference delegates).
  • The implementation of the Dementia Care Standard in the Netherlands.
  • The influence of national systems and the role of people on integrated care.
  • How literature in Integrated Care has developed over the past 10 years and what future research should focus on.

The next International Conference on Integrated Care, ICIC23 will take place in Antwerp, Flanders – May 22-24 2023.

 

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Mirella
Minkman

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