Towards Evidence Based Integrated Care

Abstract Introduction: Both in literature and in practice there is debate about defining Integrated Care. The WHO for example, defines Integrated Care as a process, not covering the perspective of (cost-) effectiveness. From the perspective of research into evidence in Integrated Care this is rather awkward. Triple aim focusses on 1) quality of life of citizens; 2) quality and continuity of care and, 3) cost effective care. Integrated Care is aimed at well-organized, cost-effective processes of care delivery, provided by committed professionals which must be able to count on well-established evidence for the care interventions they provide in integrated trajectories to their patients. Research should support them both with evidence for effective interventions and evidence for effective application. A basis for thorough research in Integrated Care is narrowed by a lack of a comprehensive definition. Theory/Methods: Since Integrated Care is considered as sets of complex interventions targeting triple aim, we compared definitions of Integrated Care reported in literature with a definition of complex interventions and a model for evidence based developing, testing and implementing complex interventions. This definition and the accompanied model are issued by the British Medical Research Council (MRC) in 2008 and are nowadays worldwide established. During the session at the conference, after a short introduction, we will discuss our proposal with the participants for improving a new definition of evidence based integrated care