Incorporating bridging to scientific literature

Research results on integrated care are usually disseminated after a study, in journals with a high impact factor and with an emphasis on outcome indicators. In this dissemination several bottlenecks appear: • the evaluated intervention is described in a too short way; • a description of care as usual is seldom given; • results are available after two or three years after finishing the intervention period; • the influence of the context of the experiment is seldom controlled; and • alternative hypotheses are seldom tested. That’s why the International Journal of Integrated Care (IJIC) and other journals try to find new ways of dissemination with more emphasis in the content of integrated care and not only in scientific papers. The dissemination takes place also in congresses, or websites and during courses, study trips and workshops. In the Netherlands this way of bridging ‘the academy’ to ‘the field’ and to ‘policy makers’ is rather popular. Decisions on research programs and topics are made not only by researchers but also by health professionals, policy makers and finally parliament. In the lecture I will work out this Dutch model.