Towards a Conceptual Framework relating to 'Health as the ability to adapt and to self manage'

Support is growing for a new concept of health which is more dynamic than the well known WHO-definition of health. The Invitational Conference in 2009, entitled ‘Is health a state or an ability? Towards a new concept of health’, organized by The Health Council of The Netherlands and The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development, resulted in the proposal of a new concept: ‘Health as the ability to adapt and to self manage’. This was published in the BMJ in 2011. To further implement the new concept, next steps are needed, among which the development of a conceptual framework to support the operationalization of the concept. The aim of the here proposed project is to initiate the development of a conceptual framework and operationalization by identifying preferred indicators for health, relating to four domains: a. health care users/patients; b. health care professionals; c. health insurance/social security; d. policy/politics.