ABSTRACT
Population-based healthcare follows an integrated and regional approach instead of focusing on single individuals and marks a new way of how healthcare is organized and provided. Although promoted by policy-makers, up to date these models are rather an exception than the norm. Still, there are some successful examples. This paper focuses on population-based integrated care programmes in Germany and draws its conclusions on a case study within the German healthcare system. Applying the concept of social innovation, we discuss the potential benefits but also limitations of population-based healthcare and explain why these approaches have not been able to achieve the impact that many stakeholders expected.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.