Increasing Health Equity and Improving the Service Experience for Under-Served Latine Communities in Arizona

Key Insights

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  Centering equity requires compensating community members fairly, overcoming institutional red tape and tax eligibility concerns.

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  A deeply engaged Community of Practice (COP) including trusted local organizations accelerates trust and relevance in health projects.

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  Human-centered design phases benefit from low-fidelity prototypes and storyboards to empower meaningful community feedback.

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  Involving community partners in decision-making from problem definition to piloting deepens participation and ownership.

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  Bringing jargon-free language and clear timelines helps non-designers navigate the ambiguity inherent in human-centered design.

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  Pilots integrated authentic health promotora workers from the Latina community to improve patient engagement and follow-up.

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  Dual pilots addressed clinical workflow improvements and community healthcare navigation challenges separately but complementarily.

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  Sustained organizational change included embedding health promotion roles permanently and expanding HCD training programs locally.

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  Flexible innovation must be balanced with realistic expectations about partner capacity to avoid overburdening small organizations.

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  Measuring impact combined qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys administered by trusted community health workers.

Notable Quotes