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Equity Promoting Integrated Care: Definition and Future Development Cover

Abstract

Over the last three decades, integrated care has emerged as an important health system strategy to improve population health while addressing the unique needs of structurally marginalised communities. However, less attention has been given to the role of integrated care in addressing issues related to inequities in health and health care. In this commentary we introduce the concept of Equity Promoting Integrated Care (EPIC) that situates integrated care in a social justice context to frame the actions necessary to center equity as a priority for integrated care. We suggest that efforts to advance the design and implementation of integrated care should focus on three avenues for future research and practice, namely, the collaborative mobilization of a global network of integrated care stakeholders to advocate for social justice and health equity, investing in equity-focused approaches to implementation science that highlight the importance of social concepts such as colonialism and intersectionality to advance the theory and practice of implementing EPIC models of care, and leveraging innovative approaches to measuring equity-related aspects of integrated care to inform continuous improvement of health systems.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/ijic.7614 | Journal eISSN: 1568-4156
Language: English
Submitted on: Mar 22, 2023
Accepted on: Oct 12, 2023
Published on: Oct 19, 2023
Published by: Ubiquity Press
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 4 issues per year

© 2023 Paul Wankah, Dara Gordon, Simone Shahid, Shivani Chandra, Ibukun-Oluwa Abejirinde, Rosanra Yoon, Walter P. Wodchis, Patricia O’Campo, Carolyn Steele Gray, Nancy Clark, James Shaw, published by Ubiquity Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.