Moving the Learning Health System from Concept to Reality

Big Data Creating a seamless interplay between research and care delivery is difficult to pull off Last September, Jonathan Perlin, M.D., chief medical officer of Hospital Corporation of America, was asked what he would tell the new president to focus on in terms of healthcare. The notion of a learning health system is defined as a system that commits to the continuous use of data as a byproduct of care for continuous learning and a virtuous cycle. The potential of big data that Perlin described is starting to become a reality at some of the leading health systems in the country and through some consortia, but as Sarah Greene, executive director of the nonprofit Health Care Systems Research Network (HCSRN), points out, using data to create a seamless interplay between research and care delivery is very hard to pull off. PUTTING PATIENTS AT THE CENTER Harlan Krumholz, M.D., director of the Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut, argues that putting patients in control of their data and making it easier for them to participate in research could jump-start the big data/ learning health system model. "If you ask people to get involved in improving the quality of their healthcare delivery and you call it quality improvement, that resonates with people more than saying we want you to be part of this learning health system." The other encouraging sign is both the National Cancer Institute and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality have made...