Population Health Innovation Lab (PHIL)

In late 2016, PHI partnered with Community Partners, State of California along with several other funders to launch the California Accountable Communities for Health Initiative (CACHI), which aims to modernize our health system, building on the Accountable Communities for Health (ACH) model. CACHI brings together clinical providers with public health departments, schools, social service agencies, community organizations, and others to improve critical health issues such as heart disease, diabetes, trauma, and promote greater health equity.

In 2017, CACHI expanded from 6 to 15 communities throughout California, to involve local communities in Southern California, the Central Valley, and Northern California. Each partner brings a unique set of skills and knowledge to change the environments that people live in, and will work together to address the root causes of health and inequities where they live.

PHIL provides support to 9 of the 15 communities. The approach includes a revised Curriculum and Playbook, one on one and group calls, convening, web discussions on relevant topics, Individualized supports and Technical Assistance Offerings (limited), resource brokerage, document repository website. Through peer learning, there is an opportunity to come together as learners, share perspectives, and broaden perspectives gaining a wider systemic perspective of population health and how to be more equipped to address the needs of their communities.

Create a multi-county initiative that will develop meaningful policy change to address factors that contribute to domestic violence and adverse childhood experiences, while utilizing the Public Health Innovation Lab’s methodology of facilitation and technical innovation.

The Population Health Innovation Lab (PHIL) has been awarded a rapid-cycle grant from the Georgia Health Policy Center (GHPC) to build upon our existing Aligning Systems for Health (AS4H) research project. PHIL will test and validate over 200 quantitative and qualitative measures of cross-sector alignment constructs using data collected in the existing AS4H study. PHIL will then assess the validity, feasibility, and utility of these findings through the conduct and analysis of in-depth interviews and focus groups. This work will contribute to a measurement toolkit for cross-sector alignment being developed by GHPC.

To support CDC in addressing rural public health research challenges PHI’s Population Health Innovation Lab (PHIL) will provide expertise and experience in working with rural health partners, facilitating interactive events, and developing CDC guidance documents. This project has two main components: (1) a virtual day-long roundtable workshop focused on rural health research methods and challenges and (2) development of a rural health research guidance document.

The study aims to understand the attitudes, beliefs, and motivations for conducting and funding biomedical and health sciences research that directly engages underrepresented communities of color. This study will deepen understanding of best practices when engaging community members and leaders in research, the systems in place to do this work, and the key players in building meaningful researcher-community relationships.

The Local Health Department (LHD) Data Use for outbreak response evaluation is a qualitative evaluation that will assess LHD usage of infection data and health equity information to respond to outbreaks. The evaluation seeks assess LHD awareness, access, and use of data, including infection and health equity data, for preventing and responding to outbreaks in healthcare facilities. Findings from this evaluation will be used to develop tools and resources that can strengthen relationships between LHDs, facilities, and partners, increase LHDs’ use of data to inform strategic decisions, support LHDs to develop data practices that lead to more equitable outcomes in outbreak response in healthcare settings, and decrease rates of healthcare associated infections (HAIs) in healthcare facilities.

The project aims to enhance LHDs' capacity for effective outbreak response. This initiative involves developing a comprehensive strategic collaboration guide, equity framework, and data management resources tailored for LHDs to increase to capacity for outbreak response in healthcare settings. Project activities include hosting webinars, creating interactive tools, and providing strategic collaboration and equity workshops to improve outbreak response strategies.