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Work plan and events taking shape for 2019
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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.
Most importantly the Partnership has grown steadily and we now have really stunning organisations involved or interested in joining the IFICA network. The work program is taking shape and there are some great events that are planned for 2019.
Over the course of the year there have been three Partners meetings. We have been able to link two of these, in March and November, to Workshops open to interested parties on topics relevant to Integrated Care that were held in the NSW Parliament House. Convened by Nick Goodwin and Viktoria Stein, they were well received and should become a familiar event on the IFICA calendar.
To advance knowledge of what's happening in Australia, in terms of Integrated Care strategy and implementation, the Partners have produced case studies of the work they are doing with other organisations in their areas utilising a standardised template produced by IFICA. These are currently being organised into clusters of emerging themes and solutions that can be shared with the other IFICA Partners and written up in the International Journal of Integrated Care (IJIC). They may also serve as a basis for advocacy to highlight challenges and solutions for State and Federal Government agencies to advance the cause of integrated health and social care in Australia.
There is also the Integrated Care Search database developed by IFIC up and running and open to members of IFIC to use. The IFICA case studies are likely to be added to this making the work done in Australia accessible nationally and internationally.
Two "Accelerated Learning Programs" were held this year the most recent of which was in Orange. These workshops enable participants to consolidate their knowledge of the key components and implementation processes involved in the successful development of IC systems. They also provide an opportunity for participants to finesse their own IC projects including making presentations to an "expert" IFIC panel and receiving constructive feedback from the other participants in the process.
In addition, several webinars have been sponsored by IFIC that Australians can access. These add to the array of opportunities partners and others have to increase their knowledge of Integrated Care. They are planned to continue next year.
While a national conference was not held this year, another Asia-Pacific International Conference (APIC) is planned for November 2019 in Melbourne. Those attending the conference in 2017 will know what a great event it was. Be sure to keep an eye out for email alerts advising you of when abstracts can be submitted and details of the dates and venue.
And don't forget the 19th International Conference on Integrated Care will be held in San Sebastian in the Basque country 1-3 April. Again, a really great event with excellent papers and networking!
That’s it for now. All the best for Xmas and the New Year to you and yours. Look forward to catching up in 2019.
Peter McGeorge
Chairperson
IFIC Australia
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The ICA© on the road: teaching integrated care design and implementation in rural New South Wales
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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”. The successful intensive learning programme designed and lead by the Integrated Care Academy© of the International Foundation for Integrated Care was to be held for the first time in rural Australia. The format combines presentations on the various building blocks and key principles of integrated care by international experts with small group work sessions, in which the participating teams vet their integrated care projects according to a change management cycle. [read more ...]
Dr Viktoria Stein is Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Integrated Care (IJIC) and former Director of Education and Training at the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC)
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Reflections from the IFIC Australia Workshop at NSW Parliament House
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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 workshop was designed in the light of the Australia Government’s Productivity Commission report that recommended the need for reforms aimed at achieving more integrated and person-centred health care focused on improving population health outcomes through high-quality and more cost-effective service provision. Specifically, this report highlighted that whilst Australia ranks pretty well on many measures in comparison to other health systems, it is beginning to fail due [read more ...]
Dr Nick Goodwin is the CEO and Co-founder of the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC)
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Evaluating integrated care at Macquarie University’s Centre for the Health Economy (MUCHE)
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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. Established in 2014, our vision is to create a world where decision makers are empowered with applied, trusted and influential research. MUCHE consists of specialist health economists working in multi-disciplinary teams across a broad spectrum of health economics and public health related topics. We collaborate across University faculties and with leading University research centres in the US, Europe and Asia. We also work with government and non-government partners committed to funding independent research on the health economy.
One of MUCHE’s strategic research areas (pillars) is integrated care. We are undertaking a number of projects .. [read more....]
Liz Schroeder is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University (MUCHE) in Sydney
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Prof. Nick Goodwin visit’s Taiwan to sign a new knowledge partnership agreement with the IAIC
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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, research and educational activities for several years – especially through its growing IFIC Australia collaborative centre partnership with the Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health at the University of Newcastle, NSW.
A highlight of my most recent visit to the region was in Taiwan where we encountered the generous hospitality and participation of the International Academy of Integrated Care (IAIC) during the various meetings, forums, workshops and conference sessions that were organised. The central focus of the visit was the realisation of three workshops on Community-based Integrated Care organised by IAIC in conjunction with the Ministry of Health and Welfare held consecutively in Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung between 23-25th October. Attended by some 300 people, the level of interest in the topic of integrated care and the range of national and local innovations that were presented was impressive suggesting that much can be learned and shared from Taiwanese experiences. [read more...]
Dr Nick Goodwin is the CEO and Co-founder of the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC)
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Promoting Better Value in Care Provision through Alliancing: Prospects for Australia
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Care systems around the world are characterised by fragmentation in the way care is funded, organised, managed and delivered. Increasingly, such divisions are leading to poorer quality of care and outcomes to individuals and communities, especially to the most vulnerable whose needs transcend the boundaries and silos that care systems have created for themselves – for example, for people with complex co-morbidities; for older people living with frailty; for people living with moderate to severe mental health conditions; and for children and adolescents with special educational needs. People’s care experiences are too often and inexcusably poor, their personal care outcomes not as good as they could be; and their utilisation of avoidable institutional care often very high yet preventable. In short, most care systems today are becoming increasingly economically unsustainable, yet they all have a significant opportunity to provide better value for money through new ways of working.
Alliancing is one of those approaches that has been taken forward in many countries to overcome the inherited vagaries of our fragmented care systems. In an alliance contract, a set of providers enters .. [read more...]
Dr Nick Goodwin is the CEO and Co-founder of the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC)
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The complex task of Health Economic Evaluation in Integrated Care in New South Wales
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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’ [1]. In Australia, commissioners, health service planners and economists grapple with pre-implementation design and post-implementation evaluations of integrated care programs, which are delivered primarily through Local Health District (LHD) or Primary Healthcare Networks (PHN). They look to international examples of evaluations for inspiration whilst innovating their own.
More broadly, the Australian health care system boasts complicated funding arrangements that involve public, private, state and federal parties resulting in “complex, overlapping and fragmented responsibilities”[2]. Health economic research occurs within a landscape where government initiatives ...[read more...]
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Winter Strategy care for high risk patients; 2017 and beyond
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In February 2017 a joint project between Northern New South Wales Local Health District and North Coast Primary Health Network was conceived to develop a more integrated strategy to better respond to increased risk to patients’ and their healthcare demands over winter (WS17). Aims and strategies were developed through a co-design process with managers, clinicians and patients.
Self-selected practices were provided with $225.70 per patient for additional nurse-led proactive care for their frail/vulnerable patients for a 17 week program covering the influenza season in 2017. Practices were asked to identify their “at risk” cohort who would benefit from the program and register patients through a website within the LHD data system so they were flagged in both the general practice and hospital/Community Health systems. This clinician-driven patient selection process had been successfully used in a previous Integrated Care Collaborative program, showing general practice could select patient cohorts with a high risk of hospitalisation while supporting clinician engagement.
The evaluation sought to capture the feasibility and acceptability of the approach and gather improvement ideas for subsequent iterations. Mixed methods were used to evaluate the patient and clinician experience. [Read more ...]
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Integrated Care Solutions© Webinar Series
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Governance to support whole systems transformation with Dr Caroline Nicholson
Join us on Thursday, 13 (Asia Pacific) December for "Governance to support whole systems transformation" with Dr Caroline Nicholson, Director, Centre for Integrated Care & Care Innovation, Mater Misericordiae Ltd, Honorary Senior Lecturer, Mater Research Institute- University of Queensland.
If change towards integrated systems is not supported by policy makers, who ensure that legal and regulatory frameworks comply with the new forms of service provision, change will not be long-term. This webinar will explore how to convince key decision makers and politicians of changing the environment in which health and social services are provided, how to use evidence-based information, how to identify and engage key supporters and opponents and how to create platforms for communication to finally create a common understanding, a sense of urgency and a burning platform for action. The webinar introduces the Service Integration Framework that introduces a set of ten essential elements to underpin and enable effective governance in integrated care systems.
Caroline has held a number of health executive positions before managing numerous research and policy development programs at state and national level. Caroline is Director, Centre for Integrated Care & Innovation at Mater Ltd, South Brisbane. Her area of research interest is in improved health system integration with the development and implementation of innovative models, an area in which she has published and presented internationally.
Integrated Care Solutions© is a service that helps support IFIC’s international clients in the effective design and adoption of their integrated care programmes.
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ICIC19 San Sebastian - Earlybird Deadline is 31 December 2018
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The full programme for the 19th International Conference on Integrated Care taking place in San Sebastian from 1-3 April 2019 will be announced shortly. In the meantime do take advantage of the Earlybird rate which is available until 31 December 2018.
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