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

Am J Med Qual. 2020 Jul/Aug;35(4):297-305. doi: 10.1177/1062860619877941. Epub 2019 Oct 4.

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.

Keywords: community health; health disparities; learning collaborative; medical education.

MeSH terms

  • Cooperative Behavior*
  • Education, Medical / organization & administration*
  • Health Equity / organization & administration*
  • Humans
  • Program Evaluation
  • Public Health*