March 6, 2020: Creating a Learning Health System Through Randomization (Leora Horwitz, MD, MHS)

Speaker

Leora Horwitz, MD, MHS
Associate Professor, Population Health and Medicine
Director, Center for Healthcare Innovation and Delivery Science, NYU Langone Health
Director, Division of Healthcare Delivery Science, Department of Population Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Topic

Creating a Learning Health System Through Randomization

Keywords

Embedded research; Electronic health records; Randomization; Quality improvement (QI); Learning health systems

Key Points

  • Randomized QI projects are needed in order to know whether such system-level programs/interventions are effective.
  • The best candidates for QI randomization projects have a high volume of cases and short-term outcomes that are already being collected.
  • These randomized QI projects were developed in collaboration with the frontline care providers and staff to ensure seamless implementation with no additional burden. Also essential was buy-in from senior-level administration.

Discussion Themes

Statistical significance is not always the right threshold for decision making in a health system.

What amount of resources are needed to do these projects (eg, researcher/analysts, project managers)? Is the work self-sustaining?

Disappointing QI findings are important to know, so that ineffective activities can be discontinued.

Read more about this project in Creating a Learning Health System through Rapid-Cycle, Randomized Testing (Horwitz et al., New Engl J Med, Sep 2019).

Tags
#pctGR, @Collaboratory1

September 11, 2019: Deadline Extended for Special Supplement Seeking Papers on Embedded Research

AcademyHealth

The submission deadline has been extended to October 28, 2019, for a special supplement on embedded health services research in Healthcare: The Journal of Delivery Science and Innovation, the partner journal of AcademyHealth. Embedded research is a critical part of the learning health system in mining and analyzing health system data to improve patient care while also providing generalizable findings to transform the health care system at large.

This special supplement is being supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research & Development and will be published in March 2020. It is expected to feature 10-12 peer-reviewed articles. Ultimately, the supplement will be a resource for those aiming to improve the relevance and use of health research to improve patient care.

For details on relevant topics and how to submit your paper online, visit the journal’s special issue page.