Promoting continuous quality improvement and improved health outcomes by the development of Learning Networks

Silo management practices, limited collaboration, underuse of reflective practice, lack of performance and information sharing contribute to the challenges we all face in providing the highly reliable healthcare systems. We need to break down these barriers and draw upon our collective expertise in partnership with our communities to deliver our aspirations for continuous quality and optimal health outcomes.

A recent article by published in the BMJ titles ' Using a network organisational architecture to support the development of Learning' (Britto et al., 5 February 2018 as 10.1136/bmjqs-2017-007219) discussed how the use of learning networks have begun to build collaborative learning environments. The article highlights how the development of a network organisational model helped to establish a Learning Healthcare System "where participants aligned around a common goal of improving health outcomes, transparency of outcome measures and a flexible and adaptive collaborative learning system. The network promoted team collaboration by using standardised processes, protocols and policies, including communication policies, data sharing, privacy protection and regulatory compliance".

Let's break down the barriers which often prevent shared learning and professional collaboration, to enable us to collectively realize our aspirations for the healthcare system we all know we have the potential to deliver.