Program managers' perspectives on using knowledge to support population health management initiatives in their development towards health and wellbeing systems: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Population health management (PHM) initiatives are more frequently implemented as a means to tackle the growing pressure on healthcare systems in Western countries. These initiatives aim to transform healthcare systems into sustainable health and wellbeing systems. International studies have already identified guiding principles to aid this development. However, translating this knowledge to action remains a challenge. To help address this challenge, the study aims to identify program managers' experiences and their expectations as to the use of this knowledge to support the development process of PHM initiatives. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were held with program managers of ten Dutch PHM initiatives. These Dutch PHM initiatives were all part of a reflexive evaluation study and were selected on the basis of their variety in focus and involved stakeholders. Program managers were asked about their experiences with, and expectations towards, knowledge use to support the development of their initiative. The interviews with the program managers were coded and clustered thematically. RESULTS: Three lessons for knowledge use for the development of PHM initiatives were identified: (1) being able to use knowledge regarding the complexity of PHM development requires (external) expertise regarding PHM development and knowledge about the local situation regarding these themes; (2) the dissemination of knowledge about strategies for PHM development requires better guidance for action, by providing more practical examples of actions and consequences; (3) a collective learning process within the PHM initiative is needed to support knowledge being successfully used for action. CONCLUSIONS: Disseminating and using knowledge to aid PHM initiatives is complex due to the complexity of the PHM development itself, and the different contextual factors affecting knowledge use in this development. The findings in this study suggest that for empirical knowledge to support PHM development, tailoring knowledge to only program managers' use might be insufficient to support the initiatives' development, as urgency for change amongst the other involved stakeholders is needed to translate knowledge to action. Therefore, including more partners of the initiatives in knowledge dissemination and mobilization processes is advised.

Searching for new community engagement approaches in the Netherlands: a realist qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Community engagement is increasingly seen as key to improving healthcare systems and to increasing communities' involvement in the shaping of their own communities. This paper describes how 'community engagement' (CE) is understood and being operationalised in the Dutch healthcare system by investigating the CE approaches being implemented in six different regions and by examining engaged citizens' and professionals' experiences of those CE approaches. METHODS: For this realist study, interviews and focus groups were held with citizens (16) and professionals (42) involved in CE approaches in the six regions. Additionally, CE-related activities were observed to supplement interview data. RESULTS: This study shows that citizens and professionals defined and experienced CE differently and that they differed in who they felt had ownership of CE. The CE approaches implemented in community-led initiatives and organisationally-led initiatives varied accordingly. Furthermore, both citizens and professionals were searching for meaningful ways for citizens to have more control over healthcare in their own communities. CONCLUSION: CE can be improved by, first of all, developing a shared and overarching vision of what CE should look like, establishing clear roles and remits for organisations and communities, and taking active measures to ensure CE is more inclusive and representative of harder-to-reach groups. At the same time, to help ensure such shared visions do not further entrench power imbalances between citizens and professionals, professionals require training in successful CE approaches.

Transforming towards sustainable health and wellbeing systems: Eight guiding principles based on the experiences of nine Dutch Population Health Management initiatives.

INTRODUCTION: Population Health Management initiatives are increasingly introduced, aiming to develop towards sustainable health and wellbeing systems. Yet, little is known about which strategies to implement during this development. This study provides insights into which strategies are used, why, and when, based on the experiences of nine Dutch Population Health Management initiatives. METHODS: The realist evaluation approach was used to gain an understanding of the relationships between context, mechanisms and outcomes when Population Health Management strategies were implemented. Data were retrieved from three interview rounds (n = 207) in 2014, 2016 and 2017. Data was clustered into guiding principles, underpinned with strategy-context-mechanism-outcome configurations. RESULTS: The Dutch initiatives experienced different developments, varying between immediate large-scale collaborations with eventual relapse, and incremental growth towards cross-sector collaboration. Eight guiding principles for development towards health and wellbeing systems were identified, focusing on: 1. Shared commitment for a Population Health Management-vision; 2. Mutual understanding and trust; 3. Accountability; 4. Aligning politics and policy; 5. Financial incentives; 6. A learning cycle based on a data-infrastructure; 7. Community input and involvement; and 8. Stakeholder representation and leadership. CONCLUSION: Development towards a sustainable health and wellbeing system is complex and time-consuming. Its success not only depends on the implementation of all eight guiding principles, but is also influenced by applying the right strategies at the right moment in the development.