Connected Health Services: Framework for an Impact Assessment

Connected health (CH), as a new paradigm, manages individual and community health in a holistic manner by leveraging a variety of technologies and has the potential for the incorporation of telehealth and integrated care services, covering the whole spectrum of health-related services addressing healthy subjects and chronic patients. The reorganization of services around the person or citizen has been expected to bring high impact in the health care domain. There are a series of concerns (eg, contextual factors influencing the impact of care models, the cost savings associated with CH solutions, and the sustainability of the CH ecosystem) that should ...

Improving Integrated Care: Can Implementation Science Unlock the ‘Black Box’ of Complexities?

In a previous IJIC editorial they reflected on the fact that we have yet to make any significant breakthrough to understand the implementation and sustainability of complex service innovations that so characterise the development of integrated care programmes [1]. Without such knowledge we might be able to explain the core building blocks of integrated care systems, but we cannot adequately explain the intricacies of effective implementation nor fully understand the causes of the outcomes we observe. This article show how this is not simply a methodological problem but reflects a more deep-rooted challenge in the lack of value that is ...

Implications of interprofessional primary care team characteristics for health services and patient health outcomes: A systematic review with narrative synthesis

Interprofessional primary care (IPPC) teams are promoted as an alternative to single profession physician practices in primary care with focus on preventive care and chronic disease management. Characteristics of teams can have an impact on their performance.

However, the empirical evidence of the implications of IPPC team design on various aspects of care processes or health outcomes is specific to particular contexts, but a general understanding of optimal team design is not available.

Development of the ACTIVE framework to describe stakeholder involvement in systematic reviews

Involvement of patients, health professionals, and the wider public (‘stakeholders’) is seen to be beneficial to the quality, relevance and impact of research and may enhance the usefulness and uptake of systematic reviews. However, there is a lack of evidence and resources to guide researchers in how to actively involve stakeholders in systematic reviews. In this paper, we report the development of the ACTIVE framework to describe how stakeholders are involved in systematic reviews

Continuity of care and referral rate: challenges for the future of health care

Continuity of care could reduce health care consumption by patients and reduce the number of referrals to specialist care, but it is unknown if there is a difference in referral rates to specific medical specialties. The aim was to determine the relationship between continuity of care and both the referral rate (referrals per patient per year) and the medical specialties for which this relationship was strongest.

New models of home care

Policy-makers have outlined their ambitions to provide joined-up care closer to home and enable people to remain independent and in their own homes. Home care will be a central component of realising these ambitions. However, there are serious concerns about the state of the home care market
and the quality of care service users receive.
In this case, the present report summarises the evidence on innovations and models of home care that demonstrate potential in the following key opportunity areas:
1. Technology and digital
2. Co-ordinated care planning
3. Recruitment and retention
4. Autonomous team working
5. Alternative approaches to ...

A guide to enabling the spread of person- and community-centred approaches for health and wellbeing

This guide is addressed to people who champion person- and community-centred approaches in health and social care. It is part of the NHS England-funded Realising the Value programme led by Nesta and the Health Foundation, which seeks to develop person- and community-centred approaches for health and wellbeing. Two main contents are included in the guide: a framework for understanding and changing behaviour, and real-world examples of how these changes happen in practice. Change is more likely to spread when both statutory organisations and community-based organisations align approaches. For this reason the guide feature case studies from both parts of the ...

Strengthening the model of primary health care in Estonia (2016)

Step-by-step guide for developing integrated health services delivery profiles

Health services delivery: a concept note