Simplifying care for complex patients.

The challenge of delivering patient-centered care to complex patient populations is to provide the right care for the right person at the right time. Our ability to do so is contingent upon accurately identifying specifi c populations, assessing their care needs, and developing models to meet those needs. In this issue of the Annals, 3 investigations illustrate the value of targeting clinician, patient, and system behavior as interrelated paths to improvement in health outcomes in complex patient populations— specifi cally populations with depression plus other chronic conditions. These articles present evidence from randomized controlled trials to inform different aspects of caring for patients with depression plus other comorbid conditions: Lin et al describe the positive effect of a team-based care intervention on initiation and adjustment of pharmacotherapy for persons with depression plus diabetes and/or coronary heart disease,1 Bogner et al use integration care managers to improve medication adherence and subsequent disease outcomes for persons with depression and diabetes,2 and Morris et al show that the effectiveness and side-effect profi les of different antidepressant medication regimens are Confl icts of interest: author reports none.