The Army's system was being overwhelmed with mental health problems among soldiers and their family members, impeding combat readiness. The key to the transformation was to apply the tenets of "learning" health care systems. Building a learning health care system is hard; building a learning mental health care system is even harder. As Helping Soldiers Heal recounts, the Army overcame the barriers to success, and its experience is full of lessons for any health care system seeking to transform.
Jayakanth Srinivasan is Research Associate Professor at Boston University's Questrom School of Business and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Health System Innovation and Policy. He is the coauthor of Beyond the Lean Revolution. Follow him on X @jk_srini.
Colonel (Ret.) Christopher Ivany, a clinician and researcher, spearheaded the Army's transformation of its mental health care system between 2013 and 2017, headed innovation for the Defense Health Agency, and is now a senior executive with a civilian behavioral health system.