Aligning forces to accelerate healthcare transformation: Insights from the UPMC learning community

To accelerate transformation toward value-based, equitable care, health systems need a viable approach for engaging and aligning multiple stakeholders to promote innovation. Building and sustaining learning communities offers one possible solution.

We describe how one learning community has leveraged the collective strengths, assets, and expertise of multiple stakeholders to improve care value for subpopulations who experience low-quality, high-cost, and/or inequitable health outcomes.

By providing critical infrastructure and support, UPMC's Learning Community was able to (1) accelerate adoption of risk-based payment models that promote shared accountability among providers, payers, and families/caregivers for the total costs of care of children and adolescents with medically complex conditions, (2) drive widespread practice change for improving physical and mental wellness for individuals with serious mental illness, and (3) increase access to evidence-based treatment and improve outcomes for individuals with opioid and substance use disorders.

Learning communities can serve as important catalyzers for the payment, practice, and service delivery innovation necessary to achieve a high-value, equitable health system.