Preface

Welcome to Vienna, the world capital of integrated care from 3 to 6 November 2009. During this 9th Annual Conference on Integrated Care we discuss the theme: Lost in Transition: Meeting the challenge through Integrated Care. Many aspects are on the agenda: the patients’ view on integrated care and their improvement in health; the management and financing of integrated care; the definitions used in policy and scientific papers; the approaches, methods and tools used in integrated care and their efficacy (e.g. clinical guidelines and other decision support tools, case/care management, chronic illness management, e-health; the implementation of integrated care models and strategies in practice, including challenges and lessons learned;