Foundations of Learning Healthcare Systems

Improving health outcomes and making the delivery system more effective relies on meaningful collaboration of patients, providers, and teams.

Learning healthcare systems (LHS) are organizations where “science, informatics, incentives, and culture are aligned for continuous improvement and innovation.”³ In 2013, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) proposed that health care organizations transform into learning systems characterized by effective integration of science and informatics, patient‐clinician partnerships, incentives, and culture.⁴ Many institutions, including Johns Hopkins Medicine, have created leadership and structural systems to promote learning, accountability, and change.⁵