Rheumatic Fever Co-Design Initiative

Budget 2019 approved $12 million over four years to improve prevention and management of rheumatic fever (mainly in Tāmaki Makaurau). Initiatives focused on increasing equity, innovation and partnerships with Māori, Samoan and Tongan communities.

ThinkPlace Limited and partners led the Co-design Initiative. Three design teams, Te Tīma Māori, the Samoa Team and Lomipeau (Tongan Team) worked with whānau, communities, health practitioners and other stakeholders to elevate the voice of lived experience to identify and embed sustainable system solutions.

The initiative had four phases:

• Phase 1: System Discovery and Opportunity Development: November 2020 – December 2021. This phase focused on understanding the beliefs, experiences and perspectives of whānau, communities, health experts and health service providers.
• Phase 2: Learning and Prototype Development: January 2022 – June 2022. In this phase, the insights and opportunities from the discovery phase were tested with whānau, communities, health practitioners and other stakeholders to identify key components that would make a positive difference.
• Phase 3: Embedding System Changes and Evaluation: July 2022 – July 2023. This phase used the learnings from the first two phases to deepen, expand and amplify the prototype areas to begin embedding change across the health system. A developmental evaluation was also undertaken by Dovetail.
• Phase 4: Reflection and Reporting: 1 July 2023 – 31 December 2023. In this phase, the teams worked with partners to create conditions for success. The teams also captured the initiative process, outcomes and learnings in the form of final reports and acknowledged the contributions of whānau and stakeholders.

Below are the five final reports that summarise the breadth of work and insights from across the Co-design Initiative. These reports demonstrate what was created, how it was created, what was learned, and opportunities for future development.

A summary report (created by ThinkPlace) reflecting on the entire Co-design Initiative. This report summarises the work that was done and what was created. It provides a series of reflections about the unique features and enabling conditions of the Co-design Initiative and provides recommendations for future Co-design Initiatives.

A discovery, insights, and prototypes report developed by the Māori team that highlights the approach, learnings and key insights and the prototypes that were created and embedded.

A discovery, insights, and prototypes report developed by the Samoa Team that highlights the approach, learnings and key insights and the prototypes that were created and embedded.

A discovery, insights, and prototypes report developed by Lomipeau (the Tongan team) that highlights the approach, learnings and key insights and the prototypes that were created and embedded.

A report developed by the team of independent evaluators who operated under the umbrella of Dovetail.

All resources developed from the Co-design Initiative can be found here. 

The previously published reports developed during Phases 1 and 2 are included below for reference. Much of the content of these reports is captured in the final reports (see above).