Learning Collaboratives in Medical Education: Exploring the Impact of Collaboratives’ Structure and Resources and Teams’ Experience

Abstract

The Alliance of Independent Academic Medical Centers (AIAMC) organized and coordinated a multicenter learning collaborative, National Initiative V (NI V), focused on community health and health inequity. A pre–post descriptive study was designed to examine the outcomes of the AIAMC NI V. Data were collected from pre- and post-assessment surveys as well as a project milestone self-assessment survey. Twenty-nine institutions participated. By the conclusion of the NI, the majority of institutions had completed at least 1 of the milestones in each of the pre-work/background (65.52%), measurement (62.07%), methods (62.07%), and implement/sustain (20.69%) domains. Institutions reported a significant association between their readiness assessments prior to the start of the NI compared with their status of activities on completion. Milestone achievement is significantly associated with 3 of the assessment items. Learning collaboratives with thoughtfully integrated structure and support can be impactful on topic readiness for the participating organizations.

Learning Collaboratives: a Strategy for Quality Improvement and Implementation in Behavioral Health

“…62 It is becoming seen as an imperative that organizational and policy changes be enacted to achieve behavioral health equity. 63,64…”

“…25 Learning collaboratives can be organized and focused on health equity projects and outcomes, as well as include a health equity perspective in all aspects of their development and evaluation. [63][64][65] Multiple frameworks and guides exist to assist health and behavioral health agencies to improve health equity. 56,65,66 Other specific recommendations related to health equity are listed in Table 2.…”

Readiness to Provide Medications for Addiction Treatment in HIV Clinics: A Multisite Mixed-Methods Formative Evaluation

“…Specifically, there is a need to enhance awareness and understanding regarding the benefits of MAT with brief medication management as effective treatments for some patients through education and training 50–58 that may occur with academic detailing and learning collaboratives. 59,60…”

“…Specifically, there is a need to enhance awareness and understanding regarding the benefits of MAT with brief medication management as effective treatments for some patients through education and training [50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58] that may occur with academic detailing and learning collaboratives. 59,60 Beyond training, however, our study reveals several additional key strategies that may be relevant for medical directors, institutional leaders, and policymakers. First, multidisciplinary teams can be leveraged to identify patients who may benefit from MAT.…”