“Implementation of integrated care in Belgian primary care practices is limited”, we concluded in our situation analysis. Together with Domus Medica, the scientific organisation for general practitioners in Flanders, we created and conducted a training in which primary care practices were coached on how to implement integrated care. Topics such as population management, multidisciplinary cooperation, self-management, proactive care and community-based care were part of the training. As a preparation, the participants could watch a knowledge video explaining them these theories.  Please find it here.

The 23rd International Conference on Integrated Care will be hosted in Antwerp, Belgium, 22-24 May 2023.
We welcome you all to this unique opportunity to learn about integrated care, with scientists, policy makers and implementers. For more information, please read it here.

The SCUBY Belgium team collaborates with Belgium partners on the development of a population dashboard. This dashboard will create a user-friendly environment for monitoring core indicators of health and wellbeing in your area, using data of available routine data. This will support policy makers and health care organisers to develop targeted interventions and monitor the effect: this is population-based management. Josefien van Olmen, along with partners, explains the concept in Dutch.

For more info, please read here.

An article "Implementation of Integrated Primary Care for Patients with Diabetes and Hypertension: A Case from Slovenia" was published in the International Journal of Integrated Care by Zalika Klemenc-Ketis, Nataša Stojnić,

Črt Zavrnik, Nina Ružić Gorenjec, Katrien Danhieux, Majda Mori Lukančič, and Antonija Poplas Susič. (Read it here)

An article "Changes in the level of knowledge of diabetes among elderly with diabetes in Slovenia in the period 2011–2020" was published in Primary Care Diabetes today by Valentina Prevolnik Rupel, Marko Divjak and Eva Turk. Please read it here.

At the 6th meeting with CTK users: World Diabetes Day, our Slovenian colleague shared findings on how to manage diabetes at the Ljubljana city library. Please find the video conference (In Slovenian) here.

A presentation was made by Miriam at the GACD Annual Scientific Meeting 2020.

Please find it here.

An abstract on "Workshop: Evaluation of scale-up of health systems interventions: what and how? Lessons for scale-up projects"  (organized by Julius Global Health (Netherlands), chairpersons: Kerstin Klipstein-Grobusch - Netherlands, Josefien Van Olmen - Belgium) was published in the European Journal of Public Health. The article can be found here.

Vannarath Te made a short slideshow with photo's of ​Scuby field work in Cambodia. You can find it on the Cambodian team page: Slideshow Field Work

GACD meeting — We were there! The opportunity to learn implementation science in the Kingdom of Thailand... Do not miss the blog post of Monika Martens and Daniel Boateng.

Young and talented — Katrien Danhieux exchanging on public healthcare systems with other young GP's in the Theis Health Center in Vigo, Galicia (Spain).

Food for thought — Our colleague Roy Remmen about the future of primary care in Belgium during a debate at the Liberal Medical Insurance Society.

Cambodia — The National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) launched the SCUBY project in Cambodia at Himawari Hotel, Phnom Penh. The launch was highly presided over by H.E Prof. ENG Huot, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Health, with relevant stakeholders more than sixty attending the event. Read more

SCUBY : ready... set... GO !

Our colleague Zalika Klemenc-Ketiš, from the Slovenia Team, introduced the SCUBY project in the EQUIP (European Association for Quality and Safety in General Practice/Family Medicine) newsletter. Please find it here.

As an offspring of SCUBY, we collaborated on the report on how to involve ‘patients’/people with needs (in Flemish PZON) into the care councils of primary care zones.
It resulted in a report and in a toolbox (see poster).

The SCUBY researchers interviewed key stakeholders at the federal and regional levels and analyzed policy documents. They presented their scientific work in two publications:

-    The first publication (Martens et al, 2021) provides a comprehensive timeline of the key moments from 2007 to 2020. The analysis of three major policy initiatives makes clear the interests and power positions of many actors.

- The second publication (Danhieux et al, 2021) looks ahead to what adjustments are needed so that future initiatives will have a greater impact more quickly.

To start a dialogue with policy makers we translated the main findings into recommendations for policy making and implementation in Belgium. You can read these in the policy brief (in Dutch).

An article by the Belgian team was published in the magazine Knack. The article is in Dutch and can be found here.

A presentation"Comprehensive Evaluation of The Hypertension at the Primary Level in Slovenia: Lessons for the Future" was made by Črt Zavrnik at the 92nd EGPRN Meeting.
Please watch it here.

Veerle Buffel has presented a poster "The quality of diabetes care in Belgium through a cascade of care lens: health insurance data linked to lab data" in session 'Engaging technological, data and social innovations' at the Sixth Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (HSR2020) in Dubai (online). Please read it here.

With proud, we present the publication of the overall study design of the SCUBY project. Please find it here.

An article by Katrien Danhieux and Josefien van Olmen was published in the Artsenkrant. The article is in Dutch and can be found here: 

Article Artsenkrant

An article appeared in the Belgian newspaper De Morgen on care during Corona, with co-authorship by Josefien van Olmen. Read it here: De coronacrisis kan de huisartsenzorg voorgoed  veranderen.

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Today is World Diabetes Day — The opportunity to recall that too many patients around the world receive suboptimal care. Let's scale up!

Girls power! — Our colleagues Monika Martens (ITM) and Katrien Danhieux (UA) presenting  their work during the 60th Colloquium of the ITM.

PhD — Daniel Boateng, our colleague from the University Medical Center Utrecht, who successfully defended his PhD thesis titled Cardiovascular disease risk among sub-Saharan African migrant and home populations. Congratulations!

Slovenia — The SCUBY (SCale-Up an integrated care package for diaBetes and hYpertension) project was successfully launched in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Read more