Community health alliances as social enterprises that digitally engage citizens and integrate services: A case study in Southwestern Sydney (protocol)

Myron Anthony Godinho; Md Mahfuz Ashraf; Padmanesan Narasimhan; Siaw-Teng Liaw

doi:10.1177/2055207620930118

Community health alliances as social enterprises that digitally engage citizens and integrate services: A case study in Southwestern Sydney (protocol)

Digit Health. 2020 Jun 22:6:2055207620930118. doi: 10.1177/2055207620930118. eCollection 2020 Jan-Dec.

Authors

Myron Anthony Godinho^{1

2}, Md Mahfuz Ashraf^{1

2

3}, Padmanesan Narasimhan^{1

2}, Siaw-Teng Liaw^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for eHealth, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW Sydney, Australia.
² Yunus Social Business Health Hub, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW Sydney, Australia.
³ Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Crown Institute of Higher Education, Australia.

Abstract

South Western Sydney (SWS) is one of the fastest growing regions in the state of New South Wales (Australia). Much of the population live in local government areas (LGAs) with levels of disadvantage higher than the state average, with a predominance of non-communicable and chronic diseases that are typically associated with age-related and behavioural factors. This necessitates the management of social determinants of health through the integrated provision of primary and social care. The SWS Local Health District and Primary Health Network is exploring the potential of community health alliances (CHAs) as an innovative approach to support the provision of integrated health services. CHAs are a population health approach for addressing health challenges faced by people who share a common area of residence, sociocultural characteristic or health need, and are characterised by a shared mission, shared resource needs and acquiring/developing necessary organisational knowledge and skills. We explore how CHAs operate as social enterprises that utilise digital health and citizen engagement to deliver integrated people-centred health services (IPCHS) by conducting two case studies of CHAs operating in SWS: in Wollondilly and Fairfield LGAs. Using this approach, we aim to unpack the conceptual convergence that enables social enterprises to utilise digital health interventions and citizen engagement strategies to co-produce IPCHS with a view to developing theory and a framework for engaging digital citizens in integrated primary health care via social enterprise.

Keywords: Citizen engagement; co-production; eHealth; health systems research; integrated people-centred health services; primary care; public participation; social determinants of health; social entrepreneurship; universal health coverage.