ICSs: improving patient and market access at a local level

Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) – 42 partnerships of health and care organisations who will plan and deliver more joined-up services for their locality in England from 1 July 2022 – will touch on every issue that is shaping healthcare today.

“A lot of things are happening in the environment right now and all of the key issues at the national level are relevant at the sub-national – ICS – level. Whether it’s the levelling up agenda, economics, social care and population health management and more, ICSs are front and centre of everything,” Steven Ferguson, head of Market Access UK and Ireland, IQVIA.

Ferguson was joined in a pharmaphorum webinar by Uday Bose, country managing director and head of human pharma, Boehringer Ingelheim, Matthias Winker, former head of Integrated Care System Strategy, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West and Jim McCardle, commercial director, Interface Clinical Services, IQVA. In a panel discussion moderated by Dr Paul Tunnah, chief content officer and managing director UK, Healthware, they discussed the opportunity for collaboration between ICSs and life science companies to improve patient and market access at a local level.

Fundamental change in mindset

The move to ICSs has been ongoing since 2014 and the change that the formal adoption of ICSs brings is fundamental. “This is a significant change for how health and care services are being planned, commissioned and delivered, with a focus on collaboration rather than competition, around the health of the entire population,” explained Winker.

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