Bridging the knowledge-to-practice gap: Co-developing a Design Jam for building a Learning Health System at Vancouver Coastal Health

Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) delivers over 150 programs and services in community settings across the region. Organizational learning to continuously improve health care is limited by the complexity of this delivery model, current policies and processes, barriers to coordinating data systems, and insufficient capacity for data analysis, and evidence mobilization to inform decisions. VCH is exploring the Learning Health System (LHS) framework to bridge the knowledge-to-action gap and our team aims to facilitate that effort. This proposed stakeholder engagement project — bringing together teams of researchers, VCH care providers and decision makers, patients, and community members — will explore practical strategies for co-creating a systemwide LHS for community health at VCH. Our objectives are to: 1) Organize a Design Jam to collectively identify stakeholder needs and priorities, system gaps, and actionable strategies for co-creating a Community LHS; and 2) Form a LHS Community of Practice to support long-term knowledge exchange and research collaboration. Through meeting these goals, our project will produce a shared vision, an action plan, and a Community of Practice to support the long-term co-development of a Community LHS at VCH.

Team members: Margaret Chen Mei Lin (UBC); David Hall (Providence Health Care); Brittany Bingham (Vancouver Coastal Health); Andreas Pilarinos (Vancouver Coastal Health); Shannon Field (Vancouver Coastal Health); Tracy Windsor (Canadian Mental Health Association); Elaina Moss (Canadian Mental Health Association); Steven Barnes (UBC); Sue MacDonald (VCH); Regina Casey (UBC); John Higenbottam (UBC); Andrew Day (Vancouver Coastal Health); Alexander Rutherford (Simon Fraser University); Stephania Manusha (Vancouver Coastal Health); Joleen Wright (Vancouver Coastal Health); Jae-Yung Kwon (University of Victoria); Ben Fair (UBC); Jas Dhahan (Simon Fraser University).