Table 1 Terms and definitions
Term | Definition |
|---|---|
Learning health systems | A set of components (including people and innovations) which interact to promote, restore, and maintain health, while making connections between past actions, their effectiveness, and future actions to support continuous incremental improvements within the health system |
Sustainability | The stability and endurance of engrained change of an innovation within a health system |
Health innovations | New or improved solutions with the potential to accelerate positive health impact |
Learning routines | Established cycles which transform data generated from healthcare practice-based activities to insights that are then re-applied to the clinical environment |
Evaluation | Efforts to assess multiple aspects of LHS performance [4], including the merit, impact, enactment, and experience of those interacting with health innovations. Evaluations can be conducted at any stage of the innovation lifecycle and use a wide variety of methods to generate insight |
Context | The backdrop of conditions in which interventions are implemented [12]. These conditions can be any circumstance which triggers and/or modifies a mechanism, including examples such as historical events, cultural norms, existing social networks, funding sources, participant characteristics, and opportunities or constraints offered by interventions [12] |
Mechanism | Causal forces, including underlying entities, processes, or structures which operate in particular contexts to generate outcomes [12] |
Outcome | The results of mechanisms operating in particular contexts |