The Core Vision of Person-Centred Care in a Modern Information-Based Society

Abstract

This chapter introduces Integrated Care not only as a new fashion but also as a return to the core care delivery philosophy promoted by Hippocrates. The first section introduces the modern drivers—economic, consumerist, resource-bounded, and demographic—which necessitate a change in the professional provider and dependent receiver care model of recent centuries and make Integrated Care an attractive goal. The next section returns to healthcare's ethical origins, pointing out that Hippocrates advocated holistic treatment of the whole person, not fragmentation by disease or specialty. It then examines the new enabler—modern Information and Telecommunications Technologies (ICT)—which can achieve unification of expertise-based fragmentation. The final section urges the need to move forward positively but carefully, as the key to success lies with the social science domain, ranging from new business models to new ethical and consent frameworks, and it details the research needed to ensure that services and technologies match user needs while being applied in a way that allays user concerns. The chapter concludes by emphasising that progress towards ICT-enabled Integrated Care will be a continuous developmental process.