Towards a Conceptual Framework for Creating and Sustaining Public Health Value.

Authors

Kevin A Kovach

Published in

Journal of public health management and practice : JPHMP. Volume 33. Issue 1. Pages 19-27.

Abstract

Public health agencies face challenges such as declining life expectancy, persistent health disparities, and underfunding. Leaders are under pressure to demonstrate their organization's value to secure support. However, the concept of "value" in public health remains underexamined and often limited to economic measures, such as return on investment. This narrow framing overlooks the broader mechanisms through which public health can create and sustain value.
This article introduces a conceptual framework that integrates 4 interdependent components, value creation, communication, stakeholder-perceived value, and value capture, to explain how public health systems generate, communicate, and sustain support over time. The framework may address the "wrong-pocket problem," in which benefits accrue to sectors other than those investing in public health, leading to chronic underinvestment.
The framework depicts a continuous value cycle. Public health agencies create value through the foundational public health services and capabilities, communicate value through tailored value propositions, shape stakeholders' perceived value, and capture fiscal, political, and relational support that can be reinvested to strengthen system capacity. Economic analyses, such as cost-consequence analysis, can help make the diverse benefits of public health visible across sectors without reducing them to a single monetary metric.
Although conceptual, the framework provides testable propositions for examining how communication and perceived value influence resource flows and sustainability. It highlights the importance of measuring stakeholder-perceived value and mechanisms of value capture.
Applying this framework can help public health leaders articulate and leverage their organization's contributions, guide policymakers in designing funding and accountability systems that reward demonstrated value, and inform research that empirically tests the pathways linking value creation, communication, and sustainability.

PMID:
43023839
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 13 Nov 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.