Masterclass to highlight new approaches to support rapid learning and improvement

The application window for the next offering of the Masterclass on Evidence Products and Processes (EP2) that Support Rapid Learning and Improvement is now open! This 12-session series, starting 29 September, will highlight new approaches and build the capacity of participants to:

• prepare fit-for-purpose evidence products; and
• engage in the key complementary processes that help to facilitate the preparation of evidence products and increase the likelihood that they’ll have an impact.

>> Register your team now for this session.

Who should apply to be involved in the masterclass?
If you are interested in working as a team to develop innovative evidence products and use innovative processes to drive changes in a health system, please complete the simple online application process. In brief, you will need to identify a team of three to five individuals, consisting of one to two researchers, one to two citizen (or patient) partners, and one decision-maker partner (ideal, but not mandatory). We particularly welcome teams that strive for gender diversity and that include racialized and Indigenous individuals. 

By the first session on 29 September, your team will need to have provisionally identified a real-world health-system challenge or goal that you want to collectively address and that you will work together to address through the masterclass.

When is the second offering of the masterclass?
The second offering of the masterclass will run every Thursday, 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. from 29 September to 15 December 2022. Each session will be held virtually using MS Teams.

The course aims to bring together teams of prospective applicants – not individuals – and will help them build the capacity to prepare products and engage in the key complementary processes that support rapid learning and improvement in an ongoing way. The course aims to support teams that are well positioned to institutionalize the knowledge and skills that are essential to creating rapid-learning health systems. Participants will bring to the course a real-world issue with which their team is currently grappling and engage in the sessions with the ultimate goal of influencing someone in a decision-making position who can help to create and sustain a learning health system in Ontario. This will be achieved by pulling together compelling evidence (in the form of an evidence product), designing an approach to support its use (using a stakeholder-engagement process) and developing a clearer understanding of who else in the evidence-support system would likely need to be engaged to influence change.

How to apply:
Complete the online registration form.

Who runs the masterclass?
In collaboration with the Ontario SPOR SUPPORT Unit the masterclass has been designed and will be offered by John Lavis and his colleagues at the McMaster Health Forum. Since April 2019, they have been supporting – in partnership with Trillium Health Partners – rapid learning and improvement among Ontario Health Teams through Rapid-Improvement Support and Exchange (RISE). Since April 2020, they have been developing innovative evidence products and processes to respond to COVID-19 through the COVID-19 Evidence Network to support Decision-making (COVID-END). Since April 2021, they have been documenting innovations and identifying priorities for improvement in how we use evidence to address societal challenges through their role as the secretariat for the Global Commission on Evidence to Address Societal Challenges.

Are there other offerings?
Offerings 3 and 4 will take place in the weeks starting: 10 April to 26 June 2023 (every Wednesday from 12-1 pm), and 25 September to 11 December 2023 (every Wednesday from 12-1 pm). The application window for these offerings will open three months before each offering, but we encourage you to hold the dates if you are very interested in a particular offering.