Learning Health Systems from the ground up: Early lessons from a community health program at Vancouver Coastal Health
Learning health systems (LHS) that integrate the generation and application of knowledge to drive continuous quality improvement for equitable and value-based health care are rapidly moving from theory to implementation across Canada and worldwide. Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) established a program in 2022 to foster a culture of learning and build the foundations of a learning health system in community health services, public health and Indigenous health. Our key initiatives aiming to drive culture shift have included a Design Jam engaging staff and researchers to envision a community LHS, developing learning communities, creating an embedded research program for operations research, and developing a framework for integrating LHS and the existing quality improvement infrastructure. This presentation will describe our LHS experience so far, focusing on some lessons learned along the way that could inform teams and programs embarking on the LHS journey in other health care settings
Learning Objectives:
- Describe what a Learning Health System is, its potential benefits and possible challenges in implementation.
- Identify concrete actions and approaches that frontline health care teams and leadership can employ to begin building a learning culture and an LHS in their own programs and organizations.
