Frequently Asked Questions About COAR

What is a Learning Health System?

A Learning Health System (LHS) is a dynamic system that continuously collects, analyzes and applies knowledge from clinical practice to improve healthcare delivery and patient outcomes.

According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Learning Health Systems:

• Gather and analyze data from patient care experiences and internal metrics to improve overall care.

• Continually assess outcomes, while refining processes and training, to develop a cycle for learning and improvement.

• Provide care teams with actionable data and tools.
• Are important for health system transformation.

Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2019). About Learning Health Systems. Retrieved from: https://www.ahrq.gov/learning-health-systems/about.html

Our center works with internal and external collaborators. We welcome submissions from:

• Brooks staff
• Other researchers
• Clinicians
• Administrators and more.

COAR focuses on quality assurance or quality improvement projects. Examples of ways they can support you include:

• Internal auditing of a program, service or process.
• Evaluating optimal functioning or specific programs of an organization
• Compare program/process/system to an established set of standards.
• Adjusting interventions based on a quality goal

When you partner with COAR, they will help you by:

• Reviewing your project scope and ensuring you partner with the right team members
• Work closely with Brooks IT and data teams to meet data needs
• Identify the right collaborators and experts for your project
• Provide guidance on surveys and statistical methods
• Provide clean, valid data with detailed dictionaries to help you decipher the data
• Provide data analysis
• Support the dissemination of results
• Develop a sustained partnership

Download our flowchart that explains how project requests are routed to COAR. 
Download <download PDF flowchart>