Integrated care needs integrated information management and technology

Integrated care entails that professionals from different organizations have to work together in a team-oriented way to provide high-quality care for a patient. This requires that healthcare professionals share information about--and with--patients at appropriate points in the care or treatment process. The necessary infrastructural arrangements--such as shared patient records, regional collaboration and a clear, transparent incentive structure--must be in place. It is increasingly hard to imagine integrative initiatives without a strong information management and technology component. However, information is a necessary condition but not sufficient to achieve integrated care; organizational change is the more critical component.