1.1 Introduction to learning health systems
Learning
“Learning is the development of insights, knowledge, and associations between past actions, the effectiveness of those actions, and future actions”. (Fiol and Lyles, 1985)
has become recognized as an essential underpinning for strong health systems and the achievement of health-related goals. The conceptualization of learning health systems (LHS)“Learning health systems are health systems that make the link between past actions, the effectiveness of those action, and future actions. (WHO, 2021)
took shape in the early 2000s with a seminal report in 2022 by the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academies of Medicine). In recent years, the number of articles on this topic has grown exponential overall, though the majority of the focus has been on high-income country (HIC) contexts. There remains a need to focus and invest further in learning in low- and middle-income country (LMIC) settings, and this course and related materials aim to provide user-friendly knowledge, tools, examples to support you to create and strengthen LHS in these contexts.
As you go through this course, you may see some terms that are unfamiliar or maybe you aren’t sure what they mean in this context. You can mouse over terms with dotted lines underneath them to find a definition and links to further resources.
Module objectives
By the end of this module, you will be able to:
• Define key terms related to LHS and how these will be utilized in this course
• Explain different levels of learning
• Explain how LHS can support and augment many common functions and goals of health service delivery programmes and systems