BC SUPPORT Unit
Learning health systems capture data from practice, generate knowledge from the data, and put the knowledge back into practice to improve care. This approach supports organizations of people, institutions and resources that deliver health care services.
A learning community brings people together to solve a shared health problem.
Learning communities are one of the first steps needed in a learning health system project. Learning communities can include care providers, patients and families, researchers and decision-makers, among others.
Learning health systems consultations
Our services that support learning health systems include:
- support to identify priorities
- consultation on knowledge synthesis and translation, implementation science
- support for learning health systems designs, methods and techniques
- guidance on data analysis plans, data cleaning, visualization, synthesis and evaluation
The BC SUPPORT Unit consults with health authority teams to improve publicly funded health services that are cost-effective, evidence-based, equitable, and respond to patient needs.
Why use a learning health system?
Using learning health systems to deliver care has many benefits:
- improve patient outcomes and experiences
- optimize the use of knowledge and evidence for decision making
- reduce health system costs
- increase equitable access to health services
What are different ways to integrate evidence into health care?
We compare five approaches.
A primer on learning health systems and learning communities
How do learning health systems differ from patient-oriented research?
Learning health systems projects:
- are often led by clinicians – researchers, decision makers, policy makers, or administrators may also be part of the project team
- change health care practice or service delivery, so work must occur within the health system
- involve multiple cycles of work, where each cycle includes the following:
- data from the system creates knowledge
- knowledge changes practice
- practice changes result in data that begins the cycle again
Is quality improvement similar to learning health systems?
Quality improvement has many of the same elements as the patient-oriented learning health system model.
What’s the same?
- Both include a cyclical approach to continuous improvement.
- Both occur in health system environments.
- Both will usually include training and education to support the changes.
- Both use data.
What’s different?
Learning health systems tend to2 :
- include a process for defining priorities for ongoing improvement
- include supports like data infrastructure and policies for continuous improvement
- involve multiple cycles of learning
- use external knowledge, including the scientific and grey literature
- share learning with other health systems partners to boost improvements across the system
- include considerations of the policy, legal and ethical environments
What are the building blocks for learning health systems?
Health authorities and other health system partners have many of the building blocks needed to support this approach. This includes data systems, clinical knowledge, patient advisory groups and teams focused on research, system optimization, evaluation, and quality improvement.
How are learning communities different from learning health systems?
Learning communities are one of the first steps needed in a learning health project. People are at the heart of learning communities. People ask questions, identify problems, make service changes and generate data.
Both learning health systems and learning communities support evidence-based and patient-oriented solutions. However, learning communities won’t have the infrastructure and resources needed for a learning health system.
How does patient-oriented research fit into learning communities?
Learning communities are collaborative groups that bring the principles of patient-oriented research into the care environment. This includes research that’s done in partnership with patients, answers questions that matter to patients and aims to improve health care and health outcomes for patients. Patient-oriented research can be thought of as a learning community focussed on research.
How does research fit into learning communities?
Learning communities act on embedded, applied research that reflects the needs of patients, clinicians and the health system. With the best available evidence, learning communities can solve health care problems.
Can you give me an example of a learning community?
A clinic in Vancouver Coastal Health is providing care to people experiencing chronic illness. The clinical team is working with administrators and people accessing services to improve care at the site. Their work is just beginning, but the collaborative work has begun to form a learning community. This group of people, or learning community, has identified a shared problem as well common metrics and outcomes.
How can I get started with learning communities and learning health systems?
The best way is to start. Focus on building the learning community. Identify the problem. Don’t wait for infrastructure or governance to be in place – just begin.