TY - JOUR
AU - A. Wojtak
AU - J. Goldhar
A1 - 
AB - Integration of health and social care is increasingly central to improving outcomes, experience and sustainability; however, integrated care is not a single construct. This article presents a novel framework to categorize and conceptualize different approaches to integrated care, illustrating variations in attributes, context, complexity and impact. Drawing on international literature, three approaches to integration - condition-based, multi-condition and population-based - are examined along a continuum. Condition-based approaches focus on defined patient groups using standardized clinical pathways requiring limited coordination. Multi-condition integration supports populations with complex chronic conditions, requiring comprehensive, multi-sectoral coordination and interconnected structures. Population-based integration represents the broadest approach, organizing health and social care around community needs and social determinants of health and necessitating system-level governance with aligned policy and funding. While integrated care models can advance without explicitly delivering population health outcomes, population health cannot be advanced without integration as a foundational enabler.
AD - Anne Wojtak, is the co-lead for the East Toronto Health Partners (Ontario Health Team), the co-editor-in-chief for Healthcare Quarterly, and adjunct professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, where she teaches in both the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME) and the Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) program.; Jodeme Goldhar, MHSc is the founder and managing director of 4C Impact Ltd. She is the co-lead and Knowledge Brokering and Mobilization Lead, Network for Integrated Care Excellence (NICE) Canada: Transforming Health with Integrated Care Knowledge Mobilization and Impact Hub plus co-director for the International Foundation for Integrated Care Canada and The North American Centre for Integrated Care, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. Jodeme is the Strategic Advisor, Health Leadership Academy, McMaster University and Co-Director, National Health Fellows Program and Collaborative Health Governance.
AN - 42010380
BT - Healthc Q
C5 - General Literature
CP - 4
DA - Jan
DO - 10.12927/hcq.2026.27812
DP - NLM
IS - 4
JF - Healthc Q
LA - eng
N2 - Integration of health and social care is increasingly central to improving outcomes, experience and sustainability; however, integrated care is not a single construct. This article presents a novel framework to categorize and conceptualize different approaches to integrated care, illustrating variations in attributes, context, complexity and impact. Drawing on international literature, three approaches to integration - condition-based, multi-condition and population-based - are examined along a continuum. Condition-based approaches focus on defined patient groups using standardized clinical pathways requiring limited coordination. Multi-condition integration supports populations with complex chronic conditions, requiring comprehensive, multi-sectoral coordination and interconnected structures. Population-based integration represents the broadest approach, organizing health and social care around community needs and social determinants of health and necessitating system-level governance with aligned policy and funding. While integrated care models can advance without explicitly delivering population health outcomes, population health cannot be advanced without integration as a foundational enabler.
PY - 2026
SN - 1710-2774
SP - 19
EP - 27+
ST - A Framework for Sensemaking and Advancing the Continuum of Integrated Care: From Condition-Based Pathways to Population Health
T1 - A Framework for Sensemaking and Advancing the Continuum of Integrated Care: From Condition-Based Pathways to Population Health
T2 - Healthc Q
TI - A Framework for Sensemaking and Advancing the Continuum of Integrated Care: From Condition-Based Pathways to Population Health
U1 - General Literature
U3 - 10.12927/hcq.2026.27812
VL - 28
VO - 1710-2774
Y1 - 2026
ER -