Research in integrated care: The need for more emergent, people-centred approaches

Abstract

The International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC) recently celebrated its 20th International Conference (ICIC20) through a virtual event that brought together patients and carers, academics, care profes-sionals, NGOs, policy-makers and industry partners from across the global integrated care community [1]. The International Journal for Integrated Care (IJIC) used this opportunity to host a workshop on published research in integrated care, specifically to reflect on the quality of existing scientific enquiry. A lively discussion on the current state of integrated care research concluded that there remained significant shortcomings to current methodologies – for example, in their ability to provide the depth of understanding required to support the knowledge needed to best inform policy and practice, particularly when addressing people-centredness. In part, the debate recognized how the nature of existing research funding, and prevailing attitudes and preferences towards certain research methodologies, were partly to blame (as has been noted by IJIC previously [2–3]). The workshop debated how research and researchers must change their focus in order to better contribute to the tenet of people-centred integrated care.