Identifying Positive Practices to Institutionalize Social Innovation in the Malawian Health System.

Background: Governments worldwide are increasingly interested in scaling up effective public health innovations, but it is not always easy to institutionalize innovations, arising outside the public health system, as a part of national delivery. Evidence on how country governments can practically achieve this is limited. This article describes the institutionalization of the Chipatala Cha Pa Foni (CCPF, Health Center by Phone) social innovation into the Malawian public health, and identifies positive institutional practices that local actors drew on to achieve this.

Social innovation in health: strengthening Community Systems for Universal Health Coverage in rural areas.

Background: In seeking the attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), there has been a renewed emphasis on the role of communities. This article focuses on social innovation and whether this concept holds promise to enhance equity in health services to achieve UHC and serve as a process to enhance community engagement, participation, and agency.

Methods: A cross-country case study methodology was adopted to analyze three social innovations in health in three low- and middle-income countries (LMICs): Philippines, Malawi, and Colombia.

A social innovation model for equitable access to quality health services for rural populations: a case from Sumpaz, a rural district of Bogota, Colombia.

Background: Despite efforts to extend Universal Health Coverage in Colombia, rural and remote populations still face significant challenges in accessing equitable health services. Social innovation has been growing in Colombia as a creative response to the country's social problems including access to healthcare. This paper presents the findings of a social innovation case study, which was implemented in the rural area of Sumapaz in  Colombia, with the purpose of holistically addressing the health needs of the local population and enhancing health service access.

The application of social innovation in healthcare: a scoping review.

Background: Social innovation has been applied increasingly to achieve social goals, including improved healthcare delivery, despite a lack of conceptual clarity and consensus on its definition. Beyond its tangible artefacts to address societal and structural needs, social innovation can best be understood as innovation in social relations, in power dynamics and in governance transformations, and may include institutional and systems transformations.

Methods: A scoping review was conducted of empirical studies published in the past 10 years, to identify how social innovation in healthcare has been applied, the enablers and barriers affecting its operation, and gaps in the current literature.

Crowdsourcing to identify social innovation initiatives in health in low- and middle-income countries.

Background: Crowdsourcing is a distributed problem-solving and production mechanism that leverages the collective intelligence of non-expert individuals and networked communities for specific goals. Social innovation (SI) initiatives aim to address health challenges in a sustainable manner, with a potential to strengthen health systems. They are developed by actors from different backgrounds and disciplines.

Universities as catalysts of social innovation in health systems in low-and middle-income countries: a multi-country case study.

Background: Social innovation (SI) in health holds potential to contribute to health systems strengthening and universal health coverage (UHC). The role of universities in SI has been well described in the context of high-income countries. An evidence gap exits on SI in healthcare delivery in the context of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) as well as on the engagement of universities from these contexts.

A hospital-based palliative care service for patients with advanced organ failure in sub-Saharan Africa reduces admissions and increases home death rates.

Context: Despite emerging data of cost savings under palliative care in various regions, no such data have been generated in response to the high burden of terminal illness in Africa.

Objectives: This evaluation of a novel hospital-based palliative care service for patients with advanced organ failure in urban South Africa aimed to determine whether the service reduces admissions and increases home death rates compared with the same fixed time period of standard hospital care.

Methods: Data on admissions and place of death were extracted from routine hospital activity records for a fixed period before death, using standard patient daily expense rates.