Public health and healthcare perspectives on collaboration for population health management: findings from a deliberative dialogue in Ontario and Alberta

Public health focuses on improving population-wide health, while healthcare systems provide care to individuals and communities. The Quadruple Aim framework includes population health as one of its four goals, yet its suitability for guiding cross-sector collaboration remains uncertain. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the need for effective partnerships between public health and healthcare to address population-level challenges. This study explores how leaders from both sectors perceive and approach collaboration to improve population health and identifies enablers and barriers to joint action. We conducted five virtual deliberative dialogues with public health leaders, healthcare leaders, and policymakers in Canada. We analyzed transcripts using reflective thematic analysis to identify patterns and themes. Rigour was enhanced through reflexivity, member checking, double coding, and detailed documentation to ensure credibility, transparency, and consistency in the analysis. Three themes were generated: [1] population health as a shared priority with divergent meanings, ; [2] resource constraints limit public health’s role in collaboration; and [3] equity-driven approach to future population health planning. Together, these themes reveal both shared priorities and structural barriers shaping cross-sector collaboration. This deliberative dialogue found that public health-healthcare collaboration was perceived to work best when priorities were shared and strategies aligned across sectors. Future collaborations should anticipate challenges related to fragmented data-sharing systems, differing organizational mandates, and limited cross-sector understanding, while developing flexible mechanisms for shared planning, accountability, and resource coordination.