Can Practice-Based Research Networks foster integrated care across the healthcare system? A scoping review

ABSTRACT

Background: Integrated health care, particularly between the broader health care system and primary care can ease the patient journey, improve outcomes and reduce healthcare costs. The rise of both Primary Health Networks and Advanced Health Research and Translation Centres in Australia expands the requirement for Australia's Practice Based Research Networks (PBRNs) to incorporate a focus on integration. However little is known about the ways in which PBRNs can help align and coordinate different parts of the health care system. Aim/Objectives: To conduct a scoping review to examine how PBRNs have been used to foster integrated care across the healthcare system. Method(s) Our scoping review used the PRISMA-ScR framework and was based on Valentijn's conceptual framework for integrated care. Two independent reviewers used CovidenceTM to search titles, s, and full texts in Ovid Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL and Scopus. We sought to identify peer-reviewed empirical studies conducted since 2000 that examined collaboration between PBRNs and the broader healthcare system. We excluded studies that solely used PBRNs for recruitment and those restricted to a single practice. Finding(s) We identified 3022 articles, of which 74 studied primary care PBRNs. Of these, 13 focussed on 'integrated care.' The studies documented collaboration between primary care and a wide range of professions and organisations. Only one explored integration at a clinical, organisational and system level, and few showed how collaborations could be established or maintained. Most prioritised population health rather than clincial care. Implications While system integration is beginning to be explored as PBRNs evolve, there is a paucity of information on how PBRNs form and foster integration between primary care and the broader healthcare system. An improved understanding of the role of PBRNs in integration is important given the focus on system integration and sustainability within Australia's new 10 Year Plan for primary health care.