Opportunities for the informatics community to advance learning health systems

Abstract

Objectives: There is rapidly growing interest in learning health systems (LHSs) nationally and globally. While the critical role of informatics is recognized, the informatics community has been relatively slow to formalize LHS as a priority area.

Materials and methods: We compiled results from a short survey of LHS leaders and American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) members, discussion from an LHS reception at the AMIA annual meeting, and a follow-up survey to inform priorities at the intersection of LHS and informatics.

Results: We present opportunities between informatics and LHS which fell into themes of: Understanding and Context, Shared Resources, Collaboration, Education, Data, Evaluation, and Patient Centeredness. Immediate LHS informatics priorities identified include establishing informatics LHS forum(s), case reports of LHS informatics successes and failures, LHS informatics education resources, and improved understanding of LHS principles in informatics.

Conclusion: Increased informatics and LHS alignment is critical for advancing this transformative national priority.

Keywords: informatics; learning health system; quality of healthcare.