5.4 Course wrap-up and additional resources

This course has introduced you to a range of concepts about what learning health systems are, several components of a learning health systems framework (e.g., learning levels, loops and means), why we need them, how to build them, and finally how to sustain them over time. Hopefully the examples provided have helped bring these concepts to life and have provided you with inspiration as well as lessons learned that can be adapted and utilized in your own work.

A few parting words:

• Leadership is critical to create the enabling environments that can support learning;
• Many stakeholders must also contribute in order to have a culture and incentives for participation and deliberative and experiential learning;
• Progress is often understand by looking at the extent to which a system has set in motion the mechanism to institutionalize learning, has deployed human capacities for learning, and has generated learning processes across levels;
• Table 14 on page 57 of the Learning Health Systems report provides examples of actions that can facilitate learning across various stakeholders and other components of learning that we have covered in this course;
• People-centredness and resilience are both concepts and values that health systems have recognized as critical to supporting learning;
• Learning health systems are those that make the link between past actions, the effectiveness of those actions, and future action; and
• For health systems to be able to respond to crises and challenges such as pandemics, transition from foreign to domestic funds, and capture the gains that information technology offers, they must be able to generate and use knowledge and skills that they need in order to continuously learn.

What can you do next? We’re excited to hear from you as you go forward and utilize the materials and concepts from this course to strengthen learning in your own contexts! Check out the resources below for further readings including links to Alliance resource materials, fora for engagement, and other tools.

Additional resources

Learning Health Systems report

• The full text of the flagship report on Learning Health Systems from the Alliance for HPSR
• Commentary on learning health systems by the flagship report editors

Background theory and literature

• IOM (2011) Learning Health Systems report
• Lehmann & Gilson (2015) Action Learning for Health Systems Governance
• Meessen at al. (2019) Learning for UHC
• Alliance for HPSR (2009) Systems thinking flagship report
• Journal on Learning Health Systems
• National Academy of Medicine series on Learning Health Systems
• LAGOS framework: Integrating learning into clinical practice
• Argyris & Schön’s Organizational Learning: Theory of Action Perspective
• Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline
• Witter et al. (2022) on Learning Health Systems in LMIC
• FCDO (2021) policy paper on Health Systems Strengthening for Global Health Security and UHC
• WHO (2021) Seven Policy Recommendation for Resilient Health Systems
• Harvard Business Review (1993) Building a Learning Organization
• OPM series on PHS with McPake co-author

Case examples

• Akhnif et al. (2018) on Piloting a learning assessment tool in six African countries
• English et al. (2016) Building Learning Health Systems for Clinical Care in LMICs
• Witter et al. (2019) on how LMICs learn from one another
• Barbados case video (learning means)
• Nigeria case video (COVID-19) 

Teaching and training materials

• Alliance resources for teaching and training, including guidelines, readers, and toolkits
• Alliance courses
• CHEPSAA modules and courses, including on systems thinking, complexity, and overview on health policy and systems research
• teaching blog
• Health Systems Global training database
• Coursera/Johns Hopkins course on systems thinking in public health

Networks and communities of practice

• Alliance Hive group on Learning Health Systems
• Health Systems Global Thematic Working Groups