About Learning Health Sciences
A collaborative group discussion in a professional setting, with participants actively engaging in problem-solving at a whiteboard and taking notes at a table.

Explore The Concept of Learning

Join us in revolutionizing learning and transforming health.

Our Mission

The Department of Learning Health Sciences (DLHS), a basic science department in the University of Michigan Medical School, focuses on revolutionizing learning and transforming health through the advancement of the sciences that make learning effective, routine, and sustainable—at scales from individuals to systems that span states and nations.

Our Vision

The Department of Learning Health Sciences embraces a bold and transcendent vision of learning. 

Once exclusively associated with attaining knowledge and skills by individuals, entities that learn now can be individuals, groups, organizations, regions, states, and entire nations. Once restricted to a specific time and location, learning occurs continuously everywhere. 

Learning is no longer an activity with a single endpoint but a critical element of a virtuous continuous improvement cycle.

A circular diagram titled "Health Problem of Interest to a Learning Community" surrounded by three interconnected cycles.

The Learning Health System loop is a cyclical framework with three main sections. Each section uses data from ongoing health care encounters and continuously aggregates, analyzes, and learns from each encounter, to incorporate new knowledge into practice for improvements in health and health care. The analyzing and learning process creates a natural feedback loop.

Alumni

Meet alumni from our graduate programs and stay up-to-date with news from our department.

History

Discover our work translating medical knowledge into better health and clinical performance.

Roland (Red) Hiss Lectureship

Join in our knowledge exchange between current faculty and visiting scholars.

Our Learning Culture

Learning is predicated on and sustained by a set of values that groups, organizations, and systems can share. In its broader sense, learning can be viewed as a field of trans-disciplinary scientific investigation. 

This field, known as the learning sciences, delves deep into the understanding of learning processes and their supporting infrastructures across various levels of scale. It is a rich intellectual tapestry that brings together behavioral, social, implementation, and organizational science; cognitive and information science; ethics and policy science, and other fields, creating a complex and comprehensive understanding of learning.

In DLHS, the learning culture values an openness to new information and a readiness to change on that basis rapidly.

Prior conceptualizations of learningThe DLHS vision of learning
Learning is focused on individualsLearning can occur in individuals, groups, organizations, systems, regions, states, nations (at any level of scale)
Learning occurs at a specific time and locationLearning occurs everywhere and continuously
Learning is an activity with known endpointsLearning is a product of a virtuous cycle of continuous improvement
Learning occurs in bounded settings, which limits diffusion across wider groupsLearning is supported by infrastructure for rapid and efficient sharing of knowledge across groups
Learning is viewed as a burden or kind of overheadLearning is embedded in routine practice as a culture unto itself

Our Approach

There is a critical question at the heart of the learning health sciences philosophy: How do we expedite the data-driven transformation of a system that encompasses over one-sixth of a nation's economy and is responsible for the health and welfare of the entire population? We believe the answer lies in Learning Health Systems. 

Learn more in our "Essence of Learning Health Systems" webinar

Strategic Plan & DEI Initiatives

As a result of a robust, collaborative planning process, DLHS completed its first departmental strategic plan in 2017 and is now updating its goals. The department continues to be guided by the following goals:

  1. Promote targeted growth and expansion of DLHS research.
  2. Achieve sustainability of the department's educational programs.
  3. Advance DLHS faculty and staff as leaders and innovators in a department that stands out nationwide for its unique mission and research expertise. Continue to develop and refine the department's identity as a basic science department.
  4. Promote diversity, equity, and inclusion within DLHS.

All of these goals are of high and equal importance to the success of DLHS. 

Explore our DEI Initiatives

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Health Lab
Adults don’t trust health care to use AI responsibly and without harm
Research finds that adults surveyed had low trust in their health care system to use artificial intelligence responsibly and others had low trust in their health care systems to make sure an AI tool would not harm them.
Department News
Kudos to HILS Master’s student Patrick Lewicki on LHS publication
Faculty and staff in the Department of Learning Health Sciences and the Health Infrastructures and Learning Systems (HILS) program congratulate HILS Master’s student, Patrick Lewicki for his recent publication about LHS in low resource settings.
little girl in pain with pink background touching stomach and seeing inside red
Health Lab
Diagnostic stewardship optimizes detection of appendicitis
University of Michigan researchers found that emergency departments vary widely in how they balance the need to diagnose appendicitis with the potential harms of overtesting.
Helen K. Morgan, M.D.
Medical School News
Helen K. Morgan, M.D., appointed faculty chair-elect for women’s careers
Helen K. Morgan, M.D., a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology and learning health sciences, has been appointed faculty chair-elect for women’s careers in the Medical School. The chair-elect is one of several new Medical School roles developed during the past year that focus on the advancement — and overall thriving — of women pursuing careers in academic medicine and science at Michigan Medicine. Morgan will become chair in January 2026, and after her term is complete, she will serve in an advisory role as post-chair in 2028-29
Katie Lynch named CNAY 2025 Champion for Change
Department News
HILS PhD student Katie Lynch named CNAY 2025 Champion for Change
The Department of Learning Health Sciences (DLHS) and the faculty and program staff of the Health Infrastructures and Learning Systems (HILS) congratulate PhD candidate, Katie Lynch on being named a Center for Native American Youth (CNAY) 2025 Champion for Change.
Department News
Clinical Simulation Center (CSC) gets full 5-year accreditation from ACS
Congratulations to the Clinical Simulation Center (CSC) team on receiving a full 5-year accreditation from the American College of Surgeons.