Learning Health Sciences Research
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1st in the Nation, Advancing Innovation

Our research enhances learning at all levels of scale to make it more effective, routine and efficient.

Improving Health & Healthcare through the Learning Health Sciences

We are a first-in-the-nation basic science department focused on learning. Our department focuses on research in four main areas to support our overarching goal-improve learning to improve health. Our research programs generate new knowledge to enhance learning at all levels of scale — feeding into the learning loop, the engine of the learning health system. Scientists across multiple disciplines contribute their individual expertise for this common cause. 

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Together, we're answering the big questions:

  • How do we bring together multiple disciplines to improve health care, to lower health care costs and to create better health?
  • How do we most effectively synthesize advances in technology with our growing understanding of social, behavioral and economic sciences?
  • How can we advance innovative concepts of teaching and learning, such as competency-based education, for health professionals?
  • How does simulation-based training of health professionals improve health care delivery and health outcomes?
  • How do we improve the accessibility of biomedical information and rapid sharing of best practices?
  • How do we create the infrastructure to implement knowledge and change practice on the ground?
Our Research Areas
Education Research

Research projects focus on learning by individuals and teams in health settings, including educational program design, learner assessment, curriculum development, program evaluation, pedagogical knowledge, best practices, and innovation experiments.

Implementation Science Research

Research projects convene learning communities around specific health problems, employing implementation science methods and best practices to solve or improve that health problem.

Informatics & Artificial Intelligence

Using digital technology, advanced data science, analytic techniques, artificial intelligence (AI), and data and information can be transformed into knowledge that stakeholders across the health and healthcare delivery ecosystem can apply to identify areas for improvement, design and target interventions.

Infrastructure Research

Research projects focus on learning at the levels of complex organizations and large-scale systems that span states and nations, including biomedical informatics, behavior change, organizational change theory, implementation science, quality and performance improvement methods, and translational research.

Collaboration is at Our Core

We collaborate across disciplines and with researchers and groups around the world to develop a deeper understanding of learning processes and their supporting environments. Discover our work with the Learning Health System Collaboratory, Learning Health Systems Journal and Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) Learning Community.

Learn more about our service & outreach
Connect With Us
Featured News & Stories See all news
Department News
Applications are open for MEL-STaR second scholar cohort
Applications are open for the Michigan Embedded Learning Health System Training and Research (MEL-STaR) center, based in the Department of Learning Health Sciences.
laptop graphic with stethoscope
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.