Due to differences in organization and reimbursement of health and social care in different countries, definitions are necessary to ensure a common understanding. In this section central terms are defined for use throughout the chapter.
Integrated Care
Integrated eCare is usually designed in order to solve different types of problems in overall health and social care provision simultaneously.
Examples of problems that are thought solved through implementation of eCare include duplication of work (e.g. GP and hospital making the same blood tests), or communication across sectors (e.g. ensuring that home care service providers are informed on a patient being discharged from hospital). In line of this thinking, Leichsenring et. al. (2013) defined integration of care as:
“Integration is usually conceptualized as a process through which new methods of working together bring actors and/or things closer to one another and allow them to become more tightly bound to each other. In this perspective a care system is integrated when dysfunctional barriers are overcome and smoother system function is attained”.
The aim of providing ICT supported integrated care thus comprises the aspects of collaboration that causes problems in health service provision.