Towards a comprehensive research design for studying integrated care

摘要

Given that integrated care includes many different aspects, this paper seeks to design a comprehensive research approach and explains how this approach is applied in the CORTEXS research project on integrated care in the Flemish Community in Belgium. A systemic view on integrated care is translated into a multi-level, multi-disciplinary, multi-method and multi-stakeholder research design. A phased approach of taxonomy development and literature review, comparative case studies, social lab activities and valorisation initiatives is devised in order to link fundamental research with strategic valorisation of the research results. While this innovative comprehensiveness is seen as a major strength, it is acknowledged that the research design comes with certain risks that need to be tackled. Due to the rapid ageing of the population and the greater longevity of people with multiple chronic conditions in many high income countries, the number of persons with chronic illness is growing at a fast rate, while the care systems were organised historically to respond rapidly and efficiently to acute illnesses and injuries. The present study focuses on the care system of the Flemish Community in Belgium. The federal state of Belgium encompasses three communities: the Flemish, the French and the German-speaking community. Since 1980 part of the responsibilities for health policy has gradually been moved from the federal government to these sub-national authorities.