The Aligning Systems for Health initiative, led by the Georgia Health Policy Center (GHPC) with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), is a national research and learning initiative that “focuses on identifying, testing, and sharing what works to align healthcare, public health, and social services to better address the goals and needs of the people and communities they serve.”[1] Essentially, how can different communities and organizations work together to produce better health outcomes? The video below gives an overview of the Aligning Systems for Health project.

PHIL was among seven grantees awarded a first round of funds to participate in this research initiative. Later, PHIL was awarded a second Aligning Systems for Health Rapid Cycle research grant. PHIL’s research explores how alignment among health care, public health, and social service sectors—in partnership with community residents and tribal nations— leads to progress toward outcomes in 22

Accountable Communities of/for Health (ACHs) in Washington (n=9) and California (n=13). PHIL’s goal was to identify what strategies are most effective to improve health equity, achieve long-term sustainability, and align sectors.

Our research is guided by and contributes to further development of the Framework for Aligning Sectors (see Figure 1). PHIL’s contributions focused on answering the following questions:

How can elements of an ACH system context and collaboration dynamics be combined, enhanced, or mitigated to increase the likelihood of achieving effective cross-sector alignment, improved health equity, and long-term sustainability?
When do certain configurations work, for whom, why, and under what conditions?
How can cross-sector alignment be measured?

PHIL used the Framework for Aligning Sectors to guide research design and analysis. To learn more about how we used the Framework and conducted our research, visit the Research Methodology page.