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All times listed in Dubai time – (check your local time)
The full programme and attendance is accessible through the HSR2020 website.
Session overview
Learning is fundamental to health systems strengthening and the achievement of health goals. This participatory session will engage policy-makers, civil society advocates, researchers and funders in structured conversation on experiences of learning health systems in LMICs, and shape a shared understanding of how to foster this critical health system function.
Session description
Learning – at individual, organizational and systemic levels – is essential to create lasting change, and systems that do not learn from (their own or others’) experiences tend to repeat their mistakes. However, health systems, especially in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), have often not fulfilled their learning potential at scale, and this impedes their effectiveness in achieving and sustaining improvements in population health. There are numerous experiences of learning having contributed to strengthening systems, or its absence contributing to failures. A supportive culture for learning is fundamental to health systems strengthening and the achievement of health goals, but this is not adequately addressed in conceptualisation and in practical understanding of how to support this vital function. Learning Health Systems (LHS) is a multifaceted subject, and existing conceptual as well as empirical knowledge on the topic is currently fragmented across different bodies of literature on health systems. This session will be participatory drawing on the literature as well as on lived experiences from a range of actors in diverse settings to draw out lessons for extending the depth and quality of LHS, which are a key determinant of health system strength and therefore of delivering health and social justice goals.
Purpose and objectives
This participatory session seeks to advance thinking on LHS based on experiential and academic knowledge and to move towards a shared understanding of how to conceptualise and foster LHS in diverse LMIC settings.
Objectives:
To share insights gained from reviews of literature and experiences on LHS
To elicit diverse actors’ (policymaker, civil society, researcher, funder) experiences and lessons on LHS (successes, failures, lessons on supportive factors and overcoming challenges)
To engage the audience in a reflective and creative dialogue on LHS
To reach a collective understanding of how to foster this critical but neglected health system function in LMICs
Session contributors
Sophie Witter, UK, will make a pacesetting presentation drawing on papers developed by her and commissioned by the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, in which she reviewed existing frameworks for and approaches to conceptualizing learning health systems and examined experiences of systems learning in LMIC health systems to draw out enablers and characteristics of LHS.
Walid Ammar, Lebanon, will reflect on his long-standing experiences as Director General in the Ministry of Public Health, promoting approaches for LHS in a conflict-affected country.
Walter Flores, Guatemala, will reflect on the significance of lived experiences of users of health services on learning health systems. Dr Flores is the Director of the Center for the Study of Equity and Governance in Health Systems, a civil society organization in Guatemala specializing in research, capacity building and advocacy around issues affecting indigenous and other marginalized populations
Helen Schneider, South Africa, will reflect on her experience of researching and advancing better governance for learning health systems at subnational and national levels. She is Professor and Chair in Health Systems Governance at the University of the Western Cape’s School of Public Health, an equity-oriented academic institution with extensive links to the South African health system.
Lola Adedokun, USA, will present reflections from her experiences as director of Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s African Health Initiative advancing LHS at country and subnational levels in several Sub-Saharan African countries.
Kabir Sheikh, Switzerland will moderate the session and provide opening and closing remarks. Dr Sheikh coordinates the Learning Health Systems initiative at the WHO Alliance for HPSR and is one of the authors of the Alliance’s flagship report on LHS.
Session plan and flow
Introduction by moderator (Kabir Sheikh) (3 minutes).
Pacesetting presentation by Sophie Witter drawing on a review of approaches to conceptualizing LHS and experiences of learning health systems in LMIC (10 min).
Round table participants will be asked to reflect on a series of questions in turn, with a few minutes per response, to keep the session dynamic (15 minutes).
This will be followed by questions and comments from the floor (20 minutes).
This cycle of roundtable reflections and questions from the floor will be repeated (35 min).
Summary by the moderator (3 min).