Learning Health Systems (LHS)

In 2007, the Washington-based Institute of Medicine (IOM), a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that is part of the National Academies of Science, released a book-length report titled The Learning Healthcare System [1]. The first in what is now a series of a dozen reports from the IOM’s Roundtable on Evidence-Based Medicine (now the Roundtable on Value & Science-Driven Health Care), the report defined and described a new conceptual approach for integrating the disparate spheres of clinical research and clinical medicine:

A learning healthcare system is [one that] is designed to generate and apply the best evidence for the collaborative healthcare choices of each patient and provider; to drive the process of discovery as a natural outgrowth of patient care; and to ensure innovation, quality, safety, and value in health care [1].

References Institute of Medicine. The Learning Healthcare System: Workshop Summary. Olsen L, Aisner D, McGinnis JM, eds. Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 2007. Available at: http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2007/The-Learning-Healthcare-System-Workshop-Summary.aspx. Accessed April 4, 2014. ↑