Viktoria Stein

Assistant Professor

Affiliation(s)
Leiden University Medical Centre (The Netherlands), Co-editor in chief International Journal for Integrated Care

Title
Integrated care, population health management and person-centredness: reflections and experiences from around the world

Abstract
From the very beginning, integrated care set out to transform care systems and shift the focus from organisations and structures to patients and communities. The IOM (2001) defined patient-centredness as one of the six elements of high quality health care, and the WHO has emphasised the importance of responsiveness, person- and people-centredness and community involvement in several reports over the last 2 decades, starting with the World Health Report 2000. Population health management (PHM) has also been around for some time, but it has garnered new interest in recent years with the rise of big data and predictive modelling. One core principle of PHM is to look at a population as a whole, taking into account how the social determinants of health play out in a specific neighbourhood or area. As such, it is hailed to be inherently person-centred. But when putting theory into practice, the inclusion of people and communities on all levels and in all aspects of care is still far from the norm and often an afterthought. The prevailing culture is still that we do care TO people and not WITH them. This presentation reflects on the reasons why and the failure inherent in our current systems, and wants to provoke the audience into action to finally make person-centredness happen at scale.

Bio
Dr. Viktoria Stein is Assistant Professor at the Department for Public Health and Primary Care at Leiden University Medical Centre and joint editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Integrated Care. She is also the president of the Austrian Public Health Association and core group member of Women in Global Health Austria. Viktoria’s recognition as a leading expert in integrated care policy, design and implementation has led to her extensive work as a consultant and expert for international agencies like the World Health Organisation, World Bank, the European Commission, or Accreditation Canada. A special focus throughout her career has been the creation of learning opportunities and environments, which foster knowledge generation and exchange. To this end, Viktoria has promoted the involvement of people, families and communities in every phase of design and implementation of integrated care, as well as on every level of decision making.