title: A Learning Behavioral Health Care System: Opportunities to Enhance Research.
abstract: Sweeping changes in health care financing combined with the increased use of technology across health care systems are making it possible to address long-standing challenges to the behavioral health services delivery system. This Open Forum outlines opportunities and challenges facing health services researchers in this rapidly changing landscape. Inspired by a 2012 report by the Institute of Medicine, the authors discuss innovative research endeavors, promising study designs, and challenges involved in integrating high-impact behavioral health services research within a learning behavioral health care framework. The Open Forum concludes with a discussion of the critical next steps in this process: building consensus around common metrics for high-quality care, relevant outcomes, and contextual factors; connecting researchers to community and clinical settings; creating a data commons to pool information across sites; and designing and evaluating evidence-based decision support tools to drive improved care and outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Dr. Stein is with the RAND Corporation and the Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, both in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (e-mail: stein@rand.org ). Dr. Adams is with the Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Oakland. Dr. Chambers is with the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland.
authors.forename: Bradley D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Stein
authors.affiliation: Dr. Stein is with the RAND Corporation and the Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, both in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (e-mail: stein@rand.org ). Dr. Adams is with the Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Oakland. Dr. Chambers is with the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland.
authors.forename: Alyce S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.affiliation: Dr. Stein is with the RAND Corporation and the Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, both in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (e-mail: stein@rand.org ). Dr. Adams is with the Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Oakland. Dr. Chambers is with the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Chambers
mesh_terms: D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D008605:Mental Health Services