Jodyn Platt, MPH, PhD is a research investigator in the Department of Learning Health Sciences within the Medical School and in the Department of Health Management and Policy within the School of Public Health.

The next generation of health information technology, organized as a “learning health system,” promises efficient, engineered solutions to the well-known and enduring maladies of the existing U.S. health infrastructure: escalating costs, poor health outcomes, ineffective use of technology, sluggish research pipelines, dangerous medical error rates, and failure to implement known clinical best practices. A learning health system would enable continuously and rapidly operating virtuous cycles of health improvement through study, feedback, and change by capitalizing on increasing amounts of digital health data. This presentation examines the significance and role of public engagement and public trust in the emerging learning health system. It further considers how research in this area can inform stable policy platforms that will contribute to meeting the vision of the learning health system.