Dear Participants,
Welcome to Tampere, the third largest city of Finland and during the 16th–18th of June, the world capital of Integrated Care. We have managed to bridge cultural and organizational gaps, technical interfaces and strained resources to bring to you the INIC10—which you will hopefully enjoy to remember.
During the 10th Annual Conference on Integrated Care we discuss the theme: “All Together Now: Exploring the Many Faces and Facets of Integrated Care”.
On the agenda are very many aspects of Integrated Care in Europe, North America and Asia, like Integrated Care for people with dementia; Community Mental Health Services; integrated Care and Economic Evaluation; Strategies and Perspectives; Concepts and Models of Integrated Care; Care for the elderly; Diabetes Care; Youth health care; Case management, Organisation of Integrated care and tools for evaluation; Health technology assessment. Including challenges and lessons learned.
In this conference we aim for the same as in the previous nine conferences: to bring together researchers, policy makers and practitioners interested in transmural cooperation and coordination between different providers of health and social care in order to exchange knowledge and experiences. We also like to generate new ideas, new research and new projects on Integrated Care.
Integrated Care has become a wide-spread concept across health systems and countries in response to the common challenges of the 21st century: an ageing society, chronic disease and multi-morbidity. Countless projects and a great variety of models have been developed over the past years to overcome systemic, professional and cultural barriers in order to smooth out patient pathways and information flow. This has had its successes and challenges still to be solved. The International Network and the International Journal of Integrated Care have established themselves to bring together researchers, practitioners, policy and decision makers active in the health and social care systems and so create a vibrant platform for exchange and innovation.
The International Network of Integrated Care and the International Journal of Integrated Care represent an international community of researchers, policy analysts, managers and professionals drawn together by the common belief that the better integration of services can lead to improved quality of services and cost-effective solutions from the point of view of services users, carers, professionals and management.
All of these efforts would have been superfluous, if it were not for you, the participants of INIC10 and your willingness to join us in Tampere.