A patient-centered complex care research agenda

Although complex care is now a widely used approach to support people with multiple health and social needs, there is considerable variation across programs, and not enough is known about what works best for which people, and how it could work better.  

More and stronger research is needed to help the field understand the most effective and efficient approaches to complex care.

To date, most research has focused on whether people who receive complex care services visit the emergency department less or are admitted to the hospital less, and therefore cost the health care system less money. Defining “success” in this way ignores many of the other ways that complex care may affect people, including around things that matter most to them, such as their quality of life and well-being.

To fully understand the impact of complex care and build a stronger evidence base, research must recognize and include the patient experience.

This Research Agenda provides a blueprint to guide future complex care research by proposing that the field focus on:

1. Meaningfully partnering with patients and communities in research;

2. Focusing on a prioritized set of research questions; and

3. Measuring outcomes in a more consistent and patient-centered way.