Academic health centres in Canada: prospects and challenges for learning health systems

There is a wide consensus that health systems and organizations often demonstrated limited ability to adapt, innovate and improve at a sufficient pace¹. Our proposed research focuses on innovation and the role of Academic Health Centres (AHCs) in delivering positive changes in health systems. It is located at the intersection of two domains of inquiry related to the evolution and modernization of contemporary health systems: 1) studies on learning health systems² and 2) studies on organizing ecologies for knowledge use and innovations³. These two analytical themes will support our empirical analysis of dynamics of innovation within AHCs. AHC is presented as the most significant institutional substrate of knowledge mobilization for innovation in health system, but little is known on its actual ability to achieve this goal⁴.

The objective of this research is to identify the key factors and mechanisms involved in the development of AHCs as catalysts for innovation. In this study, we use learning health system (LHS) as a developmental model for large AHCs supporting innovations within these organizations and across the continuum of care.

Principal Investigators

• Jean-Louis Denis, University of Toronto
• Aude Motulsky, Centre de recherche du CHUM

Co-Investigators

Funding Details

• Funding organization: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Grant #159806
• Funding amount: $125,000

Publications

• Policy context and digital development: a comparative study of trajectories in 4 Canadian academic health centers over 30 years, Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association