The interest for us of this meeting is that the Scirocco project has validated the maturity model that was developed by a group within the B3 integrated care action area of the European Innovation Platform on Active and Healthy Ageing, the area EHFF joined in 2013. We had, like others made a small contribution to the development of the maturity model, but in this project, colleagues have developed and tested the model to become a validated tool which potentially has much wider application in supporting the scaling up of improvement models or system innovation, not necessarily just in the integrated care field.
The programme for the day is here.
The presentations for the meeting are published altogether in a single pdf, which is here. We would draw your attention to four of these which we think of interest from a policy perspective:
First, a presentation from Nuria Polanco of WHO Europe, putting the Scirocco project in the context of the WHO framework for people-centred integrated services. This is quite a helpful summary of the model of person-centred healthcare that WHO has been promoting world-wide.
Second, the European Commission view, presented by Filip Domanski of DG SANTE. This presentation frames the project in the context of the Commission’s support for the deployment of digitally-enabled integrated care. Describing the background to the policy context, a significant feature now seems to be digital tools for patient empowerment and person-centred care, but what he stressed was the major issue of local investment in the new models. The last part of the presentation deals with the means the Commission has chosen to help support MS and their regions in their reform of health services. The mechanism, the Structural Reform Support Service (SRSS) and its potential implementation, to encourage investment in new models, is then described.
Third, a regional perspective, from Stef Steyaert, representing the Flanders Agency for Care and Health. This describes progress in Flanders on policy development related to primary care since 2010 and a current transition programme with thirteen elements aimed at the introduction of effective integrated care in Flanders. Stef described how his group had used the Scirocco tool as a means of assessing the maturity of the Flanders health reform they were involved in. This is one of several examples of local application of the Scirocco tool that were demonstrated during the course of the day
Finally, the presentation of Andrea Pavlickova, who has personally led the whole process during the last five or so years, entitled ‘from B3 maturity model on integrated care to a validated tool’. This presentation is paired with a validation exercise for the tool itself, carried out by a team from Brussels Free University, headed by Bert Vrijhoef.