The Care and Learn Model: a Practice and Research Model for Improving Healthcare Quality and Outcomes

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality conducted internal work to formulate a model that could be used to analyze the Agency’s research portfolio, identify gaps, develop and prioritize its research agenda, and evaluate its performance. Existing models described the structure and components of the healthcare system. Instead, we produced a model of two functions: caring and learning. Central to this model is the commitment to and participation of people—patients, communities, and health professionals—and the organization of systems to respond to people’s problems using evidence. As a product of caring, the system produces evidence that is then used to adapt and continuously improve this response, closely integrating caring and learning. The Agency and the health services research and improvement communities can use this Care and Learn Model to frame an evidence-based understanding of vexing clinical, healthcare delivery, and population health problems and to identify targets for investment, innovation, and investigation.