Helping develop the learning health system leaders of the future
Accelerating health care transformation requires a workforce with the ability to generate meaningful research questions, systematically gather and interpret data, incorporate patient experience, and use evidence-based methods to create sustained change. That’s why the ACT Center is helping train and educate the next generation of researchers and clinician leaders.
Practical training in learning health system science
Washington LHS E-STAR
The Washington Learning Health System Embedded Scientist Training and Research (LHS E-STAR) Center provides an exciting opportunity for early-career scientists to receive training and mentorship to build their skills and experience in transforming primary care.
Launched in 2024, the Washington LHS E-STAR Center is 1 of 16 LHS research training centers nationwide funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). Early-career scientists who become Washington LHS E-STAR scholars will receive multidisciplinary, didactic, and experiential training in LHS core competencies. They will also have a mentoring team who will provide guidance and support, share knowledge and experiences to build new LHS research skills, and connect scholars with professional networks.
The Washington LHS E-STAR Center is a collaborative effort by the University of Washington, the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, and diverse primary care organizations (PCOs) across Washington state. Our partner PCOs include Community Health Association of Spokane, Community Health of Central Washington, HealthPoint, and Neighborcare Health.
Interested in becoming a Washington LHS E-STAR scholar? Our next call for letters of interest will go out in October 2024. Visit act-center.org/lhs-e-star to learn more.
CATALyST
The Washington LHS E-STAR Center was built on a foundation of research partnerships that formed the core of the CATALyST K12 Learning Health System (LHS) Scholar Program. Completed in fall 2023, CATALyST was led by the ACT Center’s Paula Lozano and her colleague at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, James Ralston. (CATALyST stands for Consortium for Applied Training to Advance the Learning health system with Scholars/Trainees.)
Over 5 years, CATALyST provided 2 to 3 years of mentored training to 8 early-career scientists, giving them the opportunity to build expertise in learning health system competencies and patient-centered outcomes methodology. Scholars conducted embedded research in partnership with clinical leaders — gaining valuable experience in leading research to improve experiences and outcomes for patients, providers, and health care delivery systems.
Based at KPWHRI, CATALyST brought together 4Washington state health research centers with expertise in learning health systems: Kaiser Permanente Washington, the University of Washington, the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System, and the Washington State University College of Medicine. CATALyST was 1 of 11 U.S. Learning Health Systems Centers of Excellence funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute. The program focused on providing training to help accelerate improvements in quality, safety, equity, affordability, and patient experience across health systems.
Several CATALyST scholars partnered with the ACT Center and contributed to our work within Kaiser Permanente Washington. We are grateful to have had this opportunity to support the scientists who will become the future leaders of learning health system research. We are delighted to welcome 2 CATALyST scholars, Yates Coley and Maggie Ramirez, as leaders in the Washington LHS E-STAR Center.
Supporting family practice residents in conducting quality improvement
The ACT Center is pleased to oversee endowments that allow us to partner with the Kaiser Permanente Washington Family Medicine Residency Program to enrich the training experience for residents with a special interest in quality improvement and care delivery innovation. In addition to funding, we provide mentorship and technical assistance for applied projects conducted by residents as part of their training.
We are grateful to the Donald G. Miller, MD Endowed Fund for Clinical Innovation and the Robin E. Johnson Endowed Fellowship for making these recent partnerships possible:
Exploring approaches to reducing racial disparities in colorectal cancer screening through tailored outreach.
Featured publications
Lozano PM, Lane-Fall M, Franklin PD, Rothman RL, Gonzales R, Ong MK, Gould MK, Beebe TJ, Roumie CL, Guise JM, Enders FT, Forrest CB, Mendonca EA, Starrels JL, Sarkar U, Savitz LA, Moon JH, Linzer M, Ralston JD, Chesley FD. Training the next generation of learning health system scientists. Learning Health Systems. E-pub 10 Sept 2022. doi.org/10.1002/lrh2.10342. Full text
Coley RY, Duan KI, Hoopes AJ, Lapham GT, Liljenquist K, Marcotte LM, Ramirez M, Schuttner L. A call to integrate health equity into learning health system research training. Learning Health Systems. E-pub 24 July 2022. doi.org/10.1002/lrh2.10330. Full text
