Using modeling and scenario analysis to support evidence-based health workforce strategic planning in Malawi.

BACKGROUND: A well-trained and equitably distributed workforce is critical to a functioning health system. As workforce interventions are costly and time-intensive, investing appropriately in strengthening the health workforce requires an evidence-based approach to target efforts to increase the number of health workers, deploy health workers where they are most needed, and optimize the use of existing health workers. This paper describes the Malawi Ministry of Health (MoH) and collaborators' data-driven approach to designing strategies in the Human Resources for Health Strategic Plan (HRH SP) 2018-2022. METHODS: Three modelling exercises were completed using available data in Malawi. Staff data from districts, central hospitals, and headquarters, and enrollment data from all health training institutions were collected between October 2017 and February 2018. A vacancy analysis was conducted to compare current staffing levels against established posts (the targeted number of positions to be filled, by cadre and work location). A training pipeline model was developed to project the future available workforce, and a demand-based Workforce Optimization Model was used to estimate optimal staffing to meet current levels of service utilization. RESULTS: As of 2017, 55% of established posts were filled, with an average of 1.49 health professional staff per 1000 population, and with substantial variation in the number of staff per population by district. With current levels of health worker training, Malawi is projected to meet its establishment targets in 2030 but will not meet the WHO standard of 4.45 health workers per 1000 population by 2040. A combined intervention reducing attrition, increasing absorption, and doubling training enrollments would allow the establishment to be met by 2023 and the WHO target to be met by 2036. The Workforce Optimization Model shows a gap of 7374 health workers to optimally deliver services at current utilization rates, with the largest gaps among nursing and midwifery officers and pharmacists. CONCLUSIONS: Given the time and significant financial investment required to train and deploy health workers, evidence needs to be carefully considered in designing a national HRH SP. The results of these analyses directly informed Malawi's HRH SP 2018-2022 and have subsequently been used in numerous planning processes and investment cases in Malawi. This paper provides a practical methodology for evidence-based HRH strategic planning and highlights the importance of strengthening HRH data systems for improved workforce decision-making.

Engaging Consumers in Medicaid Program Design: Strategies from the States.

Policy Points As Medicaid programs grow in scale and complexity, greater consumer input may guide successful program design, but little is known about the extent to which state agencies are engaging consumers in the design and implementation of programs and policies. Through 50 semistructured interviews with Medicaid leaders in 14 states, we found significant variation in consumer engagement approaches, with many common facilitators, including leadership commitment, flexible strategies for recruiting and supporting consumer participation, and robust community partnerships. We provide early evidence on how state Medicaid agencies are integrating consumers' experiences and perspectives into their program design and governance. CONTEXT: Consumer engagement early in the process of health care policymaking may improve the effectiveness of program planning and implementation, promote patient-centric care, enhance beneficiary protections, and offer opportunities to improve service delivery. As Medicaid programs grow in scale and complexity, greater consumer input may guide successful program design, but little is known about the extent to which state agencies are currently engaging consumers in the design and implementation of programs and policies, and how this is being done. METHODS: We conducted semistructured interviews with 50 Medicaid program leaders across 14 states, employing a stratified purposive sampling method to select state Medicaid programs based on US census region, rurality, Medicaid enrollment size, total population, ACA expansion status, and Medicaid managed care penetration. Interview data were audio-recorded, professionally transcribed, and underwent iterative coding with content and thematic analyses. FINDINGS: First, we found variation in consumer engagement approaches, ranging from limited and largely symbolic interactions to longer-term deliberative bodies, with some states tailoring their federally mandated standing committees to engage consumers. Second, most states were motivated by pragmatic considerations, such as identifying and overcoming implementation challenges for agency programs. Third, states reported several common facilitators of successful consumer engagement efforts, including leadership commitment, flexible strategies for recruiting and supporting consumers' participation, and robust community partnerships. All states faced barriers to authentic and sustained engagement. CONCLUSIONS: Sharing best practices across states could help strengthen programs' engagement efforts, identify opportunities for program improvement reflecting community needs, and increase participation among a population that has traditionally lacked a political voice.

Toward a New Strategic Public Health Science for Policy, Practice, Impact, and Health Equity.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its social and health impact have underscored the need for a new strategic science agenda for public health. To optimize public health impact, high-quality strategic science addresses scientific gaps that inform policy and guide practice. At least 6 scientific gaps emerge from the US experience with COVID-19: health equity science, data science and modernization, communication science, policy analysis and translation, scientific collaboration, and climate science. Addressing these areas within a strategic public health science agenda will accelerate achievement of public health goals. Public health leadership and scientists have an unprecedented opportunity to use strategic science to guide a new era of improved and equitable public health.

London 2017: Lessons learned in transfusion emergency planning.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Hospitals prepare for emergencies, but the impact on transfusion staff is rarely discussed. We describe the transfusion response to four major incidents (MIs) during a 6-month period. Three events were due to terrorist attacks, and the fourth was the Grenfell Tower fire. The aim of this paper was to share the practical lessons identified. METHODS: This was a retrospective review of four MIs in 2017 using patient administration systems, MI documentation and post-incident debriefs. Blood issue, usage and adverse events during the four activation periods were identified using the Laboratory Information Management System (TelePath). RESULTS: Thirty-four patients were admitted (18 P1, 4 P2, 11 P3 and 1 dead). Forty-five blood samples were received: 24 related to nine MI P1 patients. Four P1s received blood components, three with trauma and one with burns, and 35 components were issued. Total components used were six red blood cells (RBC), six fresh frozen plasma (FFP) and two cryoprecipitate pools. Early lessons identified included sample labelling errors (4/24). Errors resolved following the deployment of transfusion staff within the emergency department. Components were over-ordered, leading to time-expiry wastage of platelets. Careful staff management ensured continuity of transfusion services beyond the immediate response period. Debriefing sessions provided staff with support and enabled lessons to be shared. CONCLUSIONS: Transfusion teams were involved in repeated incidents. The demand for blood was minimal. Workload was related to sample handling rather than component issue. A shared situational awareness would improve stock management. A laboratory debriefing system offered valuable feedback for service improvement, staff training and support.

Beyond eloquence and onto centrality: a new paradigm in planning supratentorial neurosurgery.

PURPOSE: Minimizing post-operational neurological deficits as a result of brain surgery has been one of the most pertinent endeavours of neurosurgical research. Studies have utilised fMRIs, EEGs and MEGs in order to delineate and establish eloquent areas, however, these methods have not been utilized by the wider neurosurgical community due to a lack of clinical endpoints. We sought to ascertain if there is a correlation between graph theory metrics and the neurosurgical notion of eloquent brain regions. We also wanted to establish which graph theory based nodal centrality measure performs the best in predicting eloquent areas. METHODS: We obtained diffusion neuroimaging data from the Human Connectome Project (HCP) and applied a parcellation scheme to it. This enabled us to construct a weighted adjacency matrix which we then analysed. Our analysis looked at the correlation between PageRank centrality and eloquent areas. We then compared PageRank centrality to eigenvector centrality and degree centrality to see what the best measure of empirical neurosurgical eloquence was. RESULTS: Areas that are considered neurosurgically eloquent tended to be predicted by high PageRank centrality. By using summary scores for the three nodal centrality measures we found that PageRank centrality best correlated to empirical neurosurgical eloquence. CONCLUSION: The notion of eloquent areas is important to neurosurgery and graph theory provides a mathematical framework to predict these areas. PageRank centrality is able to consistently find areas that we consider eloquent. It is able to do so better than eigenvector and degree central measures.

Rethinking workforce planning for integrated care: using scenario analysis to facilitate policy development.

BACKGROUND: A goal of health workforce planning is to have the most appropriate workforce available to meet prevailing needs. However, this is a difficult task when considering integrated care, as future workforces may require different numbers, roles and skill mixes than those at present. With this uncertainty and large variations in what constitutes integrated care, current health workforce policy and planning processes are poorly placed to respond. In order to address this issue, we present a scenario-based workforce planning approach. METHODS: We propose a novel mixed methods design, incorporating content analysis, scenario methods and scenario analysis through the use of a policy Delphi. The design prescribes that data be gathered from workforce documents and studies that are used to develop scenarios, which are then assessed by a panel of suitably qualified people. Assessment consists of evaluating scenario desirability, feasibility and validity and includes a process for indicating policy development opportunities. RESULTS: We confirmed our method using data from New Zealand's Older Persons Health sector and its workforce. Three scenarios resulted, one that reflects a normative direction and two alternatives that reflect key sector workforce drivers and trends. One of these, based on alternative assumptions, was found to be more desirable by the policy Delphi panel. The panel also found a number of favourable policy proposals. CONCLUSIONS: The method shows that through applying techniques that have been developed to accommodate uncertainty, health workforce planning can benefit when confronting issues associated with integrated care. The method contributes to overcoming significant weaknesses of present health workforce planning approaches by identifying a wider range of plausible futures and thematic kernels for policy development. The use of scenarios provides a means to contemplate future situations and provides opportunities for policy rehearsal and reflection.

Policy overview of the multisectoral nutrition planning process: The progress, challenges, and lessons learned from Burkina Faso.

INTRODUCTION: Malnutrition is a multifactorial problem, and multisectoral planning is an indispensable tool. The objective of this study was (a) to evaluate the extent to which nutrition is integrated into policies and (b) to describe the process used by the government of Burkina Faso to reform its policy frameworks and multisectoral nutrition planning. METHODS: This was a qualitative study, and data were collected in two key steps: first, through a policy overview conducted in 2015 and, second, in November 2017, through a document review and individual stakeholder interviews with 32 key actors involved in national nutrition planning. RESULTS: The extent to which nutrition is integrated into development policies varied from one sector to another. Since 2014, Burkina Faso has initiated nutrition planning through a multisectoral approach involving six sectors. This process was implemented in three key stages. Progress includes revision of national nutrition policy towards multisectoral perspective, formulation of a consensual and quality multisectoral nutrition strategic plan, creation of nutrition budget line, and establishment of nutrition technical secretariat. CONCLUSION: To improve the anchoring of multisectoral coordination bodies at the supra-ministerial level, mobilizing resources and promoting sector accountability are key next steps that would contribute to the success of the implementation.

Trends in the utilisation rates and acute hospital capacity needs for total hip replacements: results of an analysis of administrative data.

Total hip replacement surgery is the mainstay of treatment for end-stage hip arthritis. In 2014, there were 28227 procedures (incidence rate 252/100000 population). Using administrative data, we projected the future volume of total hip replacement procedures and incidence rates using two models. The constant rate model fixes utilisation rates at 2014 levels and adjusts for demographic changes. Projections indicate 32248 admissions by 2025 or an annual growth of 1.22% (incidence rate 273). The time trend model additionally projects the evolution in age-specific utilisation rates. 34895 admissions are projected by 2025 or an annual growth of 1.95% (incidence rate 296). The projections show a shift in performing procedures at younger age. Forecasts of length of stay indicate a substantial shortening. By 2025, the required number of hospital beds will be halved. Despite more procedures, capacity can be reduced, leading to organisational change (e.g. elective orthopaedic clinics) and more labour intensive stays.

Informing the American Academy of family Physician's Health Equity strategy - an environmental scan using the Delphi technique.

BACKGROUND: Many organizations have prioritized health equity and the social determinants of health (SDoH). These organizations need information to inform their planning, but, relatively few quantifiable measures exist. This study was conducted as an environmental scan to inform the American Academy of Family Physician's (AAFP's) health equity strategy. The objectives of the study were to identify and prioritize a comprehensive list of strategies in four focus areas: health equity leadership, policy, research, and diversity. METHODS: A Delphi study was used to identify and prioritize the most important strategies for reducing health inequities among the four aforementioned focus areas. Health equity experts were purposefully sampled. Data were collected in three rounds for each focus area separately. A comprehensive list of strategy statements was identified for each focus area in round one. The strategy statements were prioritized in round two and reprioritized in a final third round. Quantitative and qualitative data were integrated for the final analysis. RESULTS: Fifty strategies were identified across the four focus areas. Commitment to health equity, knowledge of health inequities, and knowledge of effective strategies to address the drivers of health inequities were ranked the highest for leadership. Universal access to health care and health in all policies were ranked highest for policy. Multi-level interventions, the effect of policy, governance, and politics, and translating and disseminating health equity interventions into practice were ranked the highest for research. Providing financial support to students from minority or low-socioeconomic backgrounds, commitment from undergraduate and medical school leadership for educational equity, providing opportunities for students from minority or low-socioeconomic backgrounds to prepare for standardized tests, and equitable primary and secondary school funding were ranked highest for diversity. CONCLUSIONS: The AAFP and other medical specialty societies have an important opportunity to advance health equity. They should develop a health equity policy agenda, equip physicians and other stakeholders, use their connections with practice-based research networks to identify and translate practical solutions to address the SDoH, and advocate for a more diverse medical workforce. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Not applicable.

A dynamic, multi-professional, needs-based simulation model to inform human resources for health planning.

BACKGROUND: As population health needs become more complex, addressing those needs increasingly requires the knowledge, skills, and judgment of multiple types of human resources for health (HRH) working interdependently. A growing emphasis on team-delivered health care is evident in several jurisdictions, including those in Canada. However, the most commonly used HRH planning models across Canada and other countries lack the capacity to plan for more than one type of HRH in an integrated manner. The purpose of this paper is to present a dynamic, multi-professional, needs-based simulation model to inform HRH planning and demonstrate the importance of two of its parameters-division of work and clinical focus-which have received comparatively little attention in HRH research to date. METHODS: The model estimates HRH requirements by combining features of two previously published needs-based approaches to HRH planning-a dynamic approach designed to plan for a single type of HRH at a time and a multi-professional approach designed to compare HRH supply with requirements at a single point in time. The supplies of different types of HRH are estimated using a stock-and-flow approach. RESULTS: The model makes explicit two planning parameters-the division of work across different types of HRH, and the degree of clinical focus among individual types of HRH-which have previously received little attention in the HRH literature. Examples of the impacts of these parameters on HRH planning scenarios are provided to illustrate how failure to account for them may over- or under-estimate the size of any gaps between the supply of and requirements for HRH. CONCLUSION: This paper presents a dynamic, multi-professional, needs-based simulation model which can be used to inform HRH planning in different contexts. To facilitate its application by readers, this includes the definition of each parameter and specification of the mathematical relationships between them.

Forecasting imbalances of human resources for health in the Thailand health service system: application of a health demand method.

BACKGROUND: For an effective health system, human resources for health (HRH) planning should be aligned with health system needs. To provide evidence-based information to support HRH plan and policy, we should develop strategies to quantify health workforce requirements and supply. The aim of this study is to project HRH requirements for the Thai health service system in 2026. HRH included in this study were doctors, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, medical technicians (MTs), physiotherapists (PTs), and Thai traditional medicine (TTM) practitioners. METHODS AND RESULTS: The study mainly relied on the secondary data in relation to service utilization and population projection together with expert opinions. Health demand method was employed to forecast the HRH requirements based on the forecasted service utilizations. The results were then converted into HRH requirements using the staffing norm and productivity. The HRH supply projection was based on the stock and flow approach in which current stock and the flow in and out were taken into account in the projection. The results showed that in 2026, nurses are likely to be in critical shortages. The supply of doctors, pharmacists, and PTs is likely to be surplus. The HRH requirements are likely to match with the supply in cases of dentists, MTs, and TTM practitioners. CONCLUSION: In 2026, the supply of key professionals is likely to be sufficient except nurses who will be in critical shortages. The health demand method, although facing some limitations, is useful to project HRH requirements in such a situation that people are accessible to health services and future service utilizations are closely linked to current utilization rates.

The use of modelling studies to inform planning of health services: case study of rapidly increasing endoscopy services in Australia.

BACKGROUND: Demand for gastrointestinal endoscopy in Australia is increasing as a result of the expanding national bowel cancer screening program and a growing, ageing population. More services are required to meet demand and ensure patients are seen within clinically recommended timeframes. METHODS: A discrete event simulation model was developed to project endoscopy waiting list outcomes for two large metropolitan health services encompassing 8 public hospitals in Australia. The model applied routinely collected health service data to forecast the impacts of future endoscopic demand over 5 years and to identify the level of service activity required to address patient waiting times and meet key policy targets. The approach incorporated evidence from the literature to produce estimates of cost-effectiveness by showing longer term costs and Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) associated with service expansion. RESULTS: The modelling revealed that doing nothing would lead to the number of patients waiting longer than clinically recommended doubling across each health service within 5 years. A 38% overall increase in the number of monthly procedures available was required to meet and maintain a target of 95-98% of patients being seen within clinically recommended timeframes to the year 2021. This was projected to cost the funder approximately $140 million in additional activity over a 5 year period. Due to improved patient outcomes associated with timely intervention, it was estimated that the increased activity would generate over 22,000 additional QALYs across the two health services. This translated to an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of $6467 and $5974 per QALY for each health service respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Discrete event simulation modelling provided a rational, data based approach that allowed decision makers to quantify the future demand for endoscopy services and identify cost-effective strategies to meet community needs.

Evaluating the implementation and use of the regional cancer plan in Western Sweden through concept mapping.

QUALITY PROBLEM OR ISSUE: Within healthcare, policy documents are often used to strategically standardize, streamline or change how general health issues are managed for a specific patient group or treatment. Despite significant effort in developing policy and strategic planning documents, these may not have the intended impact and their value has long been questioned by practitioners. CHOICE OF SOLUTION: To identify barriers and affordances for the implementation and use of a strategic plan for cancer care in the Western Sweden Healthcare Region, we used Concept Mapping; a participatory mixed method approach to inquiry consisting of both qualitative and quantitative tasks intended to elicit and integrate the diverse perspectives of multiple stakeholders. IMPLEMENTATION: The study was carried out between April and October 2017 and consisted of several sequential data collection steps: idea generation, sorting and rating ideas for importance and feasibility. Stakeholders from different levels and professions in cancercare participated, but the number varied in the separate steps of data collection: idea generation (n = 112), sorting (n = 16) and rating (n = 38). EVALUATION: A concept map visualized seven areas that stakeholders throughout the cancer-care process considered necessary to address in order to enable the implementation of the plan. Skills provision was considered the most important cluster but also rated as least feasible. A consistent theme emerged that information, or lack thereof, might be a barrier for the plan being put into action to a greater extent in the cancer-care units. Nine actionable ideas rated highly on both importance and feasibility were presented as a go-zone. LESSONS LEARNED: Our results suggest that efforts might be better spent on ensuring information about and accessibility to strategic documents throughout the organization, rather than frequently updating them or producing new ones. Having sufficient skills provision seems to be the prerequisite for successful implementation.

Using Human-Centered Design to Build a Digital Health Advisor for Patients With Complex Needs: Persona and Prototype Development.

BACKGROUND: Twenty years ago, a "Guardian Angel" or comprehensive digital health advisor was proposed to empower patients to better manage their own health. This is now technically feasible, but most digital applications have narrow functions and target the relatively healthy, with few designed for those with the greatest needs. OBJECTIVE: The goal of the research was to identify unmet needs and key features of a general digital health advisor for frail elderly and people with multiple chronic conditions and their caregivers. METHODS: In-depth interviews were used to develop personas and use cases, and iterative feedback from participants informed the creation of a low-fidelity prototype of a digital health advisor. Results were shared with developers, investors, regulators, and health system leaders for suggestions on how this could be developed and disseminated. RESULTS: Patients highlighted the following goals: "live my life," "love my life," "manage my health," and "feel understood." Patients and caregivers reported interest in four functions to address these goals: tracking and insights, advice and information, providing a holistic picture of the patient, and coordination and communication. Experts and system stakeholders felt the prototype was technically feasible, and that while health care delivery organizations could help disseminate such a tool, it should be done in partnership with consumer-focused organizations. CONCLUSIONS: This study describes the key features of a comprehensive digital health advisor, but to spur its development, we need to clarify the business case and address the policy, organizational, and cultural barriers to creating tools that put patients and their goals at the center of the health system.

Planning area-specific prevention and intervention programs for HIV using spatial regression analysis.

OBJECTIVE: The study was conducted to inform area-based prevention intervention programs and plan resource allocation to reduce new infections in the District of Columbia (DC), United States of America. STUDY DESIGN: The analysis used spatial regression to evaluate the spatial heterogeneity of the new HIV rate and its association with sexually transmitted infection repeaters (STIREPs) and socio-economic as well as demographic characteristics. The HIV and STIREP data were obtained from the DC Department of Health surveillance data (2010-2016). Other covariates were obtained from the American Community Survey, 2016. METHODS: Ordinary least squares (OLS) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) were used to compare global and local relationships. GWR-computed robust results were compared with other spatial regression methods such as spatial lag or spatial error methods. RESULTS: For the OLS model, age, high school dropouts (NHSD), and the black population had an association with new HIV diagnoses (HIVDVi). The results from the GWR model demonstrate spatial variations of association of STIREPs; mean age of each block group; and percentage of female population, NHSD, unemployment, and poverty with HIVDVi. Akaike information criterion (AICc) value for the global model was 2770.99, and R2 was 0.54 (54%). The R2 and AICc of the GWR model was 0.81 (81%) and 2580.84, respectively, where the latter showed a 0.27 (27%) increase in R2 and a decreased AICc. CONCLUSION: These results will assist in planning HIV prevention and intervention strategies. These results will also be used for targeted testing, planning pre-exposure prophylaxis, and access to health care. The results will help plan resource allocation to community-based providers for prevention intervention programs and fund public health programs such as condom distribution, mobile vans, and youth-based sex education.

The calendar year fallacy: The danger of reliance on calendar year data in end-of-life capacity and financial planning.

Planners, actuaries, and others involved in forecasting capacity and costs must manipulate historical data. Data from calendar/financial year totals have been assumed to be adequate and reliable. This relies on the assumption that year-to-year differences do not arise from patterns concealed in the data. While the seasonal cycle is widely recognized, longer term patterns such as disease outbreaks will act to modify annual demand and costs. Monthly data relating to deaths in local government areas in England and Wales are used to demonstrate curious semipermanent bursts of high behavior. There is no seasonal pattern for the start of these events, and the sudden switch to high deaths can occur at any time, even in immediately adjacent areas. Higher deaths and related demand and costs endure for around 12 months before they suddenly revert to the former level where they stay until the next of these curious high events. In England and Wales (and many other countries), a period of unexplained higher deaths, reduced life expectancy, and health care and life insurance costs since 2011 appears to be coming to an end and looks to have arisen from a coincidence of these events at sub-national level.

Formative research for the development of an Eye Health Strategic Planning and Evaluation Framework and a Checklist: A health systems approach.

This formative research process aimed to develop an Eye Health Strategic Planning and Evaluation Framework and indicator Checklist. The research process utilized a multi-phased multiple methods approach including literature review, initial expert review (n = 27), findings from a Cambodian Avoidable Blindness Initiative demonstration project (2009-2012), observation and analysis of four rural sites of the Indian LV Prasad Eye Institute Pyramid Model (n = 21), and finally, a critique by Cambodian government eye health professionals/staff (n = 15), health center staff and community representatives (n = 77) and patients (n = 62). Results from three Cambodian population-based surveys (KAP n = 599, patient follow-up n = 354, and RAAB 4650) also informed the development of the Framework and the Checklist. The Framework domains include: situation analysis, determinants of accessibility, service delivery systems, operation systems, networks and linkages, outcomes, and impact. Domains were subdivided into 59 components. The Checklist consists of 253 indicator items. The Eye Health Strategic Planning and Evaluation Framework and the Checklist can assist policy makers, program planners, and evaluators to develop a comprehensive whole of systems approach to eye health care to improve coverage and utilization of services.

Integrating nutrition into health systems: What the evidence advocates.

There is considerable evidence of positive health and nutrition outcomes resulting from integrating nutrition-specific interventions into health systems; however, current knowledge on establishing and sustaining effective integration of nutrition into health systems is limited. The objective of this review is to map the existing types of integration platforms and review the evidence on integrated health and nutrition programmes' impacts on specific nutrition outcomes. A literature search was conducted, and integrated nutrition programmes were examined through the lens of the six World Health Organization (WHO) building blocks, including the demand side. Forty-five studies were included in this review, outlining the integration of nutrition-specific interventions with various programmes, including integrated community case management and Integrated Management of Childhood Illness, Child Health Days, immunization, early child development, and cash transfers. Limited quantitative data were suggestive of some positive impact on nutrition and non-nutrition outcomes with no adverse effects on primary programme delivery. Through the lens of the six WHO building blocks, service delivery and health workforce were found to be well-integrated, but governance, information systems, finance and supplies and technology were less well-integrated. Integrating nutrition-specific interventions into health systems may ensure efficient service delivery while having an impact on nutrition outcomes. There is no single successful model of integration; it varies according to the context and demands of the particular setting in which integration occurs. There is a need for more well-planned programmes considering all the health systems building blocks to ensure compliance and sustainability.

Indigenous model of care to health and social care workforce planning.

Indigenous people have always had the end in mind-a long range vision for the health and wellbeing of their families and communities. Creating Indigenous solutions-oriented approaches to strategic health and social care workforce planning is an essential component to the realization of self-determination and empowerment, accessible health services, community participation, and flexible approaches to care. This article suggests using an Indigenous "models of care" population health approach to health and social care workforce planning that takes a critical thinking, systems thinking, and design thinking approach using digital tools (eg, scenario planning and population health simulation). It also proposes to increase the number of Indigenous professionals through Indigenous partnership initiatives with professional groups and academic institutions. This article is written to encourage discussion on the use of a whole system approach to developing Indigenous models of health delivery and to inform strategic services and workforce planning.