Abstract
Shared electronic health and social care records in some service systems are already showing some of the benefits of digital technology and digital data for integrating health and social care. These records are one example of the beginning “digitalisation” of services that gives a glimpse of the potential of digital technology and systems for building coordinated and individualized integrated care. Yet the promise has been greater than the benefits, and progress has been slow compared to other industries. This paper describes for non-technical readers how information technology was used to support integrated care schemes in six EU services, and suggests practical ways forward to use the new opportunities to build person-centered integrated care.
Highlights
This paper uses the non-technical term “digitalisation” to describe the introduction of digital devices and systems for collecting and using data for many purposes
The potential and the progress Most clinicians, leaders and researchers have some awareness of the potential of IT for enhancing health and social care and its coordination, and of the dangers and time distractions of under-designed systems
The integrated care schemes had to work with the inherited buildings- and professionbased information systems and try to use digital technologies to improve communications
Summary
This paper uses the non-technical term “digitalisation” to describe the introduction of digital devices and systems for collecting and using data for many purposes. This experience and the research from other industries shows ways to build new models of integrated care that IT and the internet makes possible which allow coordination and a degree of autonomy for the networked units.
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