Learning from what we do and doing what we learn. This cycle — the basis for learning health systems (LHS) and implementation science — is a powerful wheel that can transform health care delivery.
“We have our work cut out for us,” said Sunil Kripalani, MD, MSc, Vice President for Health System Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, in opening the sixth annual Vanderbilt LHS Symposium on May 13.
“Research is often not translated into practice,” said Kripalani, who also directs the Vanderbilt Center for Health Services Research. As the pace of discovery accelerates, “the gap between what we know and what we do is growing. Learning health systems help us translate knowledge into better health care delivery and improved patient outcomes more rapidly.”
The tools of social science and “behavioral economics” — understanding and motivating human behavior — can help, said the symposium’s keynote speaker, Rinad Beidas, PhD, an internationally known implementation scientist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
She described how behavioral “nudges” make it easier or more attractive for health care professionals to follow a desired practice, for example, encouraging conversations with patients about their preferences in the setting of serious illness.
“Human behavior — within organizational and system constraints — is really the final common pathway for transforming health,” said Beidas, who chairs the Department of Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern.
The symposium, which drew 120 attendees, was sponsored by the Center for Health Sciences Research, the VICTR Center for Learning Healthcare, the RAPID-LHS Center, and the VETWISE-LHS Center.
In two panel discussions, VUMC experts described ways to “scale-up and spread” the impact of health care interventions across systems, and the importance of patient-centered learning health system research. Patients “need to be a part of everything we do,” said panelist Bill Heerman, MD, MPH, associate professor of Pediatrics.
Molly Knostman, PharmD, MHA, executive director of Inpatient Pharmacy Operations at Vanderbilt University Hospital, received the Best Operational Partner award for her contributions to pragmatic research on improving medication safety.
A poster session featuring more than 30 research projects preceded the program. Catherine Deffendall, MD, a clinical fellow in Rheumatology and Immunology, won the “People’s Choice Award” for her group’s poster, entitled “Improving continuity of care in the Nashville General Hospital Rheumatology Clinic.”
Other “Best Poster” designations were awarded by a panel of judges.
Robert Becker, MS, graduate student in Biomedical Informatics, won the “Best Work in Progress Award” for his poster entitled “Implementing an electronic decision aid to reduce bleeding risk with anticoagulants.”
Brooke Looney, PharmD, CSP, specialty pharmacist at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, won the “Best Completed Work Award” for her poster entitled “Implementation of oral anticancer early monitoring using electronic questionnaires.”
