Integrated care programmes for adults with chronic conditions: a meta-review

• Integration within and between outpatient and inpatient sectors and collaboration between physicians and other healthcare professionals are central to high-quality patient care. 
• Due to the massive increase in highly specialized diagnostic and therapeutic approaches in recent decades, effective multidisciplinary collaboration has become both increasingly important and increasingly difficult . 
• Lack of integration can make care processes incoherent, redundant or error prone. 
• Integration of care is particularly salient in patients with chronic and multi-morbid disease, who require consistent management over long periods of time.

This article review systematic reviews and meta-analyses of integrated care programmes in chronically ill patients, with a focus on methodological quality, elements of integration assessed and effects reported.