The transition towards person-centered care requires health care systems to be integrated and to be co-created with patients and their families. Health managers must consider the personal needs, preferences, behaviours, and attitudes of individuals while guaranteeing high-quality care for all. In the current context, how can health leadership support this shift in their organisation and health system? What tools, services, and innovations can participate in facilitating this change? What do patients want and how can that be effectively measured and used? 

We will try to give answers to these questions during three dedicated Abstract Sessions under this sub-theme during the EHMA 2021 Annual Conference

The first session on Person-centered care will be held on Wednesday, 15 September at 17.00. Person-centered care puts the patient at the center of decision-making, and involves the patient in the planning, developing, and monitoring of care to ensure that their needs are met. As will be made evident during this session, person-centered care can be achieved through various approaches, including active participation of patients in goal setting, social prescribing, and shared decision-making concerning resource allocation. 

Ms Isabel Farina, Management Engineering Department, Polytechnic of Milan, Italy will present the abstract “Positioning Social Prescribing in the scenario of community-based interventions for the transformation of mental health services for children, adolescents and young people: a review” aimed at understanding how social prescribing for adolescents and young people can be positioned in the current scenario of transforming mental health services as a community-based intervention for children, adolescents and young people. 

To follow, Dr Francesca Donofrio, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy will discuss her study “Gender as a driver of healthcare sustainability: a systematic literature review” through with she will highlight that to be truly sustainable and to meet the different interests and needs of all stakeholders, health systems should adopt a wide definition of sustainability, which considers economic, environmental, and social aspects. 

Ms Bronagh McGuckin, Newcastle University, United Kingdom will showcase the research “Public perspectives on using societal values in oral healthcare decisions”, the first study that used methodology directly incorporating public values into the decision-making process using a questionnaire issued to a representative sample of the public, asking for societal values for 15 dental services. 

To conclude, MsC Cristina Mendes-Santos, Linköping University, Sweden and NOVA National School of Public Health, Portugal, will present the abstract “Breast cancer patients’ attitudes toward Digital Mental Health” aimed at exploring Breast cancer patients’ attitudes toward Digital Mental Health and to investigate factors associated with these attitudes. 

The session on Continuity of hospital care will be held on Thursday, 16 September at 10.00. Continuity of care is achieved through the coordination and integration of care across sectors, healthcare settings, providers, and users. Continuity has shown to enhance treatment adherence and outcomes, result in higher patient and provider satisfaction, and improve patients’ quality of life. The COVID-19 pandemic seriously hampered continuity of care due to closure of primary care practices, postponed appointments, shortages of medicine, and disruption of patient-provider interactions. 

To begin, Dr Fabrizio Ruffini, Azienda Ospedaliera di Perugia, Italy will showcase his research about “Establishment of a hospital-territory computer network for the management and care of patients in “pediatric palliative care” in Umbria” aimed at building a network between the Pediatric Hospital and Local Facilities, to guarantee a path of diagnosis and care for the children inside the category of ” palliative care”. 

Dr Alexandre Lourenço, Nova School of Business & Economics, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal, Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra, Portugal, and National School of Public Health, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal will present the study “Determinants of hospital delayed discharges in Portugal” aimed at studying the extension and determinants of Delayed hospital discharge for the Portuguese National Health Service. 

To conclude, Prof Maria de Guadalupe Comparada Almeida, Instituto Politécnico de Beja, Portugal, will discuss the abstract “The Occupational Therapist and the discharge support intervention program” and she will focus on the role of Hospital discharge planning in the smooth transition from hospitalisation to home environment, which is only possible when adequate clinical and community support services are ensured. 

The last session under this sub-theme, specifically on Integration of care for community-living patients, will be held on Thursday 16 September at 15.45. In recent years, health systems around the world have been moving towards integrated, patient-centered care to avoid fragmented delivery of care. Numerous benefits arise from providing comprehensive care services, including better patient experience, improved health outcomes and quality of care, and financial efficiency. This abstract session will highlight the different ways in which integrated care has been implemented in various settings. 

To begin, Dr Anam Ahmed, Panaxea, The Netherlands and Radboud University Medical Centre, The Netherlands, will present the abstract “Untangling the interrelatedness within integrated care programmes for community-dwelling frail older people: a rapid realist review” aimed at identifying the relationships between the context in which Integrated care programmes (ICPs) are applied, the mechanisms by which they work, and the outcomes resulting from this interaction and at analysing to what extent the World Health Organization framework on integrated people-centred health services (IPCHS) is applied in ICPs. 

After, Ms Anu Vehkamäki, Aalto University, Finland will showcase her research “Exploring the factors causing discontinuity of chronic care” that has the objective of exploring factors leading to discontinuity of care among chronic abdominal patients. 

Ms Annika Bengts, HEMA Institute, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Aalto University School of Science, Finland will discuss the abstract “Towards platform solutions in care coordination – Identifying occurrences of fragmentation in Parkinson’s Disease care”, research that focuses on the identification of fragmentation occurrences in Parkinson’s disease (PD) care in the Finnish healthcare context. 

To follow, Prof Mieke Rijken, Nivel, The Netherlands; University of Eastern Finland, will discuss her study “Reforming care for people with (multiple) chronic conditions: what matters to them?” through which she will present the Integrated Multimorbidity Care Model (IMCM), a tool developed as part of the European Joint Action CHRODIS, and she will analyse to what extent the model reflects the priorities and preferences for care of Dutch primary care patients with multimorbidity. 

Ms Katerina Tarasova, Health Assessment Europe, Belgium, and Accreditation Canada, will then present the abstract “From design to practice: People powered integrated health” that will lead attendees to learn how to apply a standards framework and customised tools to guide healthcare organisations in their integration journey. 

To conclude, Ms Riikka Riihimies, Clinical Instructor, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland and Valkeakoski Health Center, Finland, will present the abstract “Navigator: On-line clientship profiling helps to tailor integrated care” that describes the Finnish clientship model and the corresponding on-line tool (Navigator) for assessing a person’s clientship profile and potentially matching care pathways and discusses how clientship thinking can help to tailor health and social care to people’s needs, as such improving person-centredness and care integration. 

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