Papers of the Week

Integrated care is a continuum of services delivered by a system organized around the health needs of people rather than diseases. People with chronic musculoskeletal pain often live with co-existing chronic health conditions. Current care for musculoskeletal pain remains narrowly focused on individual painful conditions despite the complex health needs of patients. We explore the challenges to delivering integrated care to people with musculoskeletal pain and co-existing chronic health conditions. We discuss these challenges in relation to 3 areas: (i) understanding the relationships between musculoskeletal conditions and other chronic health conditions, (ii) factors that impact the clinician's capacity to provide integrated care for musculoskeletal conditions, (iii) system level constraints impacting on both the clinician's delivery of care and the patient's healthcare experience. We suggest ways for clinicians and researchers to move towards better integrated care for musculoskeletal pain and co-existing chronic health conditions. .