Leveraging technology in public-private partnerships: a model to address public health inequities

Long-standing inequities in healthcare access and outcomes exist for underserved populations. Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are where the government and a private entity jointly invest in the provision of public services. Using examples from the Health Equity Consortium (HEC), we describe how technology was used to facilitate collaborations between public and private entities to address health misinformation, reduce vaccine hesitancy, and increase access to primary care services across various underserved communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. We call out four enablers of effective collaboration within the HEC-led PPP model, including: 1. Establishing trust in the population to be served 2. Enabling bidirectional flow of data and information 3. Mutual value creation and 4. Applying analytics and AI to help solve complex problems. Continued evaluation and improvements to the HEC-led PPP model are needed to address post-COVID-19 sustainability.