​The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) has published a new discussion paper that advances the vision of a continuously learning health system, which the Institute of Medicine laid out in the 2013 report Best Care at Lower Cost: The Path to Continuously Learning Health Care in America. The discussion paper focuses on actions to foster more active engagement of front-line clinicians—an essential component for achieving the best outcomes for both clinical practice and patients.

Three priorities for action are outlined:

• Create incentives for clinician engagement so that clinicians are active partners in the design and conduct of learning activities
•  Address productivity pressure to help minimize competing demands and embed knowledge generation into the workflow
•  Address technical competencies by incorporating continuous learning within medical and graduate school curricula

 “A fully realized learning health system needs clinicians to assume an active leadership role.” Clinician Engagement for Continuous Learning (Richard Platt et al., 2017)

Readers can download the discussion paper (PDF) at the NAM website.