Tales of Co-Production: Transforming Health Systems by Renegotiating Power

Abstract

Efforts for health system transformation (HST) are taking place in diverse sites across the healthcare industry, involving stakeholders at many levels. In this context, co-production as an approach to HST is gaining traction, but its impact remains unclear. We compared and contrasted the findings from evaluations of three initiatives that adopted co-productive methods to promote HST. The first initiative evaluated clinicians’ perspectives on HST using qualitative methods. The other two initiatives evaluated the perspectives of healthcare consumers-advocates using a mixed-method approach. Findings from these evaluations show that using co-productive methods can create a space where power dynamics can be renegotiated to promote process changes that may result in outcomes of more inclusive, consumer-centered health policies and improved health outcomes.