Abstract
European countries are facing a rapid growth of the number of people with multimorbidity (i.e. people with two or more chronic conditions), due to population ageing, increased incidence (amongst others, because of unhealthy lifestyle) as well as increased survival rates of many chronic conditions.
Many countries are aware that reforms of their health and care systems are needed to respond timely, effectively and sustainably to the changing health and care needs of their populations. However, evaluating the effectiveness of integrated care models poses a significant challenge due to the inherent complexity of these interventions. Existing evaluation methods may not be well-suited to capture the multifaceted nature of integrated care for multimorbid populations.
The deficiency in evidence concerning the impact of integrated care on multimorbid populations hinders informed decision-making for both policy and practice in this field. Particularly in regions or countries where integrated care solutions are currently lacking, providing care professionals and policy makers with evidence on the effectiveness of integrated care, along with insights into macro, meso, and micro-level contextual factors that can facilitate successful implementation, is of paramount importance. However, the key challenges remain how to obtain such evidence and how to transfer it to policy and practice.
To address these challenges, a group of researchers from 16 different European countries applied for a COST Action grant in order to support a network called: Building and Applying Strong Evidence to improve integrated CARE for multimorbid populations (BASE-CARE). This network has set forth two main objectives:
1.To strengthen and improve the quality of the evidence underlying integrated care models and practice designed to improve the quality and outcomes for multimorbid populations.
2.To improve access and usability of this evidence to support evidence-informed policy- and decision-making.
Understanding whether, how, and under what conditions integrated care practices effectively improve outcomes for multimorbid patients is deemed crucial. Implementing innovations without ensuring positive outcomes not only lacks sense but can also discourage future attempts to bring about changes in care delivery processes.
Stakeholders, including care professionals, patients, informal caregivers, health financiers, and policymakers, invest substantial time and resources in implementing integrated care practices. Therefore, it is imperative that they have confidence in the potential success of these practices. Engaging all stakeholders in the evaluation process is critical to ensure that the generated evidence informs the improvement of care practices, the development and implementation of supportive policies, and the scaling up and transfer of successful practices.
By emphasising the importance of evidence quality, utilization, and stakeholder engagement, BASE-CARE aims to contribute to the establishment of a more robust foundation for integrated care practices, ultimately benefiting multimorbid populations in European countries and regions.
The purpose of the networking session at ICIC2024, is to exchange knowledge and experiences, not only with researcher, but also with other key stakeholders, including persons with multimorbidity on innovative methods that could be used to evaluate the effects of integrated care for multimorbid populations.