Integration of health and social care is increasingly central to improving outcomes, experience and sustainability; however, integrated care is not a single construct. This article presents a novel framework to categorize and conceptualize different approaches to integrated care, illustrating variations in attributes, context, complexity and impact. Drawing on international literature, three approaches to integration – condition-based, multi-condition and population-based – are examined along a continuum. Condition-based approaches focus on defined patient groups using standardized clinical pathways requiring limited coordination. Multi-condition integration supports populations with complex chronic conditions, requiring comprehensive, multi-sectoral coordination and interconnected structures. Population-based integration represents the broadest approach, organizing health and social care around community needs and social determinants of health and necessitating system-level governance with aligned policy and funding. While integrated care models can advance without explicitly delivering population health outcomes, population health cannot be advanced without integration as a foundational enabler.

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