The Heller School for Social Policy and Management
Relational Coordination Collaborative
Jen Perloff, Palmira Santos, Masami Kelly, Jon Chapman
  • Jennifer Perloff, Institute on Healthcare Systems, The Heller School, Brandeis University
  • Palmira Santos, Institute on Healthcare Systems, The Heller School, Brandeis University
  • Masami Tabata-Kelly, Institute on Healthcare Systems, The Heller School, Brandeis University
  • John Chapman, Institute on Healthcare Systems, The Heller School, Brandeis University

The push for more value from healthcare has shined a light on the importance of well-functioning and broadly conceived teams of caregivers (not all currently considered 'healthcare'), and on social factors not previously considered part of the healthcare system such as safe housing, adequate food and adequate financial resources, for impacting patients’ health and well-being. 

As the definition of care and the locus of control begin to shift towards the joint production of health, community actors such as public health departments and social and economic non-profits have increasingly key roles to play.  And population health initiatives such as accountable care organizations have tremendous potential to reallocate resources from acute medical care to prevention and social services (Mechanic & Fitch, 2023).  But there are very few models for how these disparate sectors can work together.  

In this RC Cafe, we will engage with the research and practitioner community to take stock of what we know about using relational coordination, co-production and social networks to build multi-disciplinary teams of care-givers and multi-sector partnerships for equitable value creation (Burns, Nembhard & Shortell, 2022; Gittell & Ali, 2023).  We will identify gaps needing research exploration, and explore how to more effectively strengthen these relational dynamics (Bolton, Logan & Gittell, 2021).

We’ll be using our new community dialogue format for this Cafe. At the beginning we’ll offer the floor to anyone who has a thought to contribute, then head into open dialogue.  If you're already a member, register below and feel free to bring one or more guests.  If you're not a member, reach out to one of our members or the RCC team (relationalcoord@brandeis.edu) for a guest invite - or take a minute and become a member now.