The use and role of digital technology in learning health systems: A scoping review

The review aimed to identify which digital technologies are proposed or used within learning health systems (LHS) and to analyze the extent to which they support learning processes in LHS.

Multiple databases and grey literature were searched with terms related to LHS. Manual searches and backward searches of reference lists were also undertaken. The review considered publications from 2007 to 2022. Records focusing on LHS, referring to one or more digital technologies, and describing how at least one digital technology could be used in LHS were included.

2046 records were screened for inclusion and 154 records were included in the analysis. Twenty categories of digital technology were identified. The two most common ones across records were data recording and processing and electronic health records. Digital technology was primarily leveraged to support data access and aggregation and data analysis, two of the seven recognized learning processes within LHS learning cycles.

The results of the review show that a wide array of digital technologies is being leveraged to support learning cycles within LHS. Nevertheless, an over-reliance on a narrow set of technologies supporting knowledge discovery, a lack of direct evaluation of digital technologies and ambiguity in technology descriptions are hindering the realization of the LHS vision.

Future LHS research and initiatives should aim to integrate digital technology to support practice change and impact evaluation. The use of recognized evaluation methods for health information technology and more detailed descriptions of proposed technologies are also recommended.