Experience from a variety of disciplines suggests that improving healthcare, particularly in resource-poor environments, can benefit from a systems approach. However, putting this into practice is challenging, especially in the context of an international institutional health partnership. In this article, we outline how a systems approach to the improvement of trauma care has informed both clinical improvement and academic collaboration as part of an ongoing partnership involving Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the University of Cambridge, and Cambridge Global Health Partnerships in the UK, and Yangon General Hospital, University of Medicine 1, and the Tropical Health and Education Trust (THET) in Myanmar. Improving and researching trauma care is an exemplar of a systems problem, requiring an understanding of the relevant people, equipment, processes, institutions, and power structures that result in the delivery of care at all points of the patient's journey from injury to rehabilitation. Exploring this in the explicit context of traumatic brain injury is one of the research themes of the NIHR Global Health Research Group on Neurotrauma, allowing systems research to directly inform efforts at practical improvement.