Putting the network to work: Learning networks in rapid response situations

Abstract

Abstract Introduction The rapid response to COVID‐19 has necessitated infrastructural development and reorientation in order to safely meet patient care needs. Methods A qualitative case study was constructed within a larger ethnographic field study. Document collection and fieldnotes and recordings from nonparticipant observation of network activities were compiled and chronologically ordered to chart the network's response to changes in epilepsy care resulting from COVID‐19 and the rapid transition to telemedicine. Results The network's response to COVID‐19 was characterized by a predisposition to action, the role of sharing as both a group practice and shared value, and the identification of improvement science as the primary contribution of the group within the larger epilepsy community's response to COVID‐19. The findings are interpreted as an example of how group culture can shape action via a transparent and mundane shared infrastructure. Conclusions The case of one multi‐stakeholder epilepsy Learning Network provides an example of the use of infrastructure that is shaped by the group's culture. These findings contribute to the development of a social theory of infrastructure within Learning Health Systems.

Keywords

• COVID‐19
• infrastructure
• learning health system
• learning network
• telemedicine