Can network approaches manage conflicting objectives more effectively than other ways of organising care?
Clinical networks are more complex than those found in industrial settings because health care is organised across three inter-related systems of service, teaching and research. In an effective network, neither is consistently dominant; leadership should vary with the needs of the network and its participants, making system optimisation easier for participants to achieve. Clinical networks should improve the quality and quantity of the links between health care, teaching and research, for example by providing evidence of improved knowledge management, transfer or implementation of research. In an integrated care context they may provide a way of improving cross-organisational competence, for example, across primary and specialist care, health and social care, or between purchasers and providers. At the level of the organisation or care group, networks should be better at adapting and responding effectively to uncertainty and constant change than more traditional approaches to deliverin
