Opportunities and challenges of promoting integrated care through digitalisation–Learning lessons from large-scale national programmes in England

There is a growing global interest in integrating health and care through digitalisation. However, many ambitious digitalisation initiatives in the healthcare sector fail to achieve their intended outcomes. One contributing factor is the failure to apply lessons learned from past endeavours. We here leverage the experiences gained from large-scale digitalisation efforts within the National Health Service (NHS) in England to distil valuable insights for strategic decision-makers who are embarking on the development and implementation of initiatives aimed at integrating health and social care through digitalisation. While not exhaustive, our compilation of eight key lessons serves as a foundational resource to inform such initiatives, seeking ultimately to contribute to realising maximum benefits for health and care organisations and service users.