Course Description
This course provides a technology-oriented introduction to the application of knowledge management tools and techniques to manage healthcare knowledge. The course investigates the different sources and modalities of healthcare knowledge and examines technical issues related to the capture, organization, sharing and utilization of healthcare knowledge to improve the delivery of healthcare within the context of a healthcare enterprise. The course is designed to instigate research questions and to investigate the design of knowledge management solutions for healthcare knowledge acquisition, healthcare knowledge modeling, clinical decision-support systems, patient education, best-evidence retrieval and knowledge sharing. The course syllabus can be viewed at the Syllabus section (see sidebar for tab titled Course Outline).
Course Objectives
The goal of this course is to characterize healthcare knowledge and to examine the operational and technical issues related to the development and deployment of 'pragmatic' knowledge management solutions for managing healthcare knowledge to support four main activities: (1) Clinical Decision Support; (2) Computerization and Operationalization of healthcare knowledge; (3) Knowledge Sharing and Translation; and (4) Knowledge-driven health informatics solutions.
At the conclusion of the course, it is anticipated that students will be able to (a) identify the presence (or lack of) of healthcare knowledge within a healthcare enterprise; (b) understand the potential application of knowledge management techniques/tools within healthcare; (c) develop innovative healthcare knowledge management solutions; and (d) operationalize healthcare knowledge to impact the delivery the healthcare.
Course Delivery
The course content will be delivered by the instructor twice weekly in 90 minute lectures. The lectures will be in a seminar style, the instructor will introduce a topic and lead the discussion with participation from the students. The lectures are designed to introduce students to knowledge management concepts, and to demonstrate their application in a healthcare context. The role of the instructor is that of a facilitator, introducing to the student various healthcare knowledge management concepts and methods, thus facilitating the student to apply the 'right' knowledge management methods to solve health-related problems/issues.
The instructor will provide initial reading material; the student is then expected to follow-up by sourcing additional material and applying it to the problem at hand. The student is expected to take charge and responsibility of his/her learning process by collecting the relevant resource material and understand in-depth the concepts/methods/strategies to the point where they can be applied to solve his/her healthcare knowledge management problem.
The course advocates a hands-on approach to learning, as such students will be required to conduct a series of tasks and present their findings to the class. Students will be required to conduct a literature review and technology assessment (see sidebar for tab titled Regulations and Projects). Students will periodically present their work via in-class presentations. The course aims to foster a collaborative learning environment in which students learn theoretical concepts by applying them and then sharing their experiences with the class.
Course Reference Material
This course does not have a designated textbook. The main resource for this course is Open Clinical: Knowledge Management for Medical Care (www.openclinical.org)
Additionally, the instructor will provide relevant material from different books and research papers. Some useful texts are as follows:
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RK. Bali & AN. Dwivedi (Eds). Healthcare Knowledge Management. Springer Verlag, 2006. |
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K. Dalkir. Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice. Elsevier Press, 2005. |
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N. Wickramasinghe, JND. Gupta & SK. Sharma (Eds). Creating Knowledge-Based Healthcare Organizations. Idea Group Publishing, 2004. |
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RK. Bali (Eds). Clinical Knowledge Management: Opportunities and Challenges. Idea Group Publishing, 2005. |
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T. Ichimura & K. Yoshida. Knowledge-Based Intelligent Systems for Healthcare. Advanced Knowledge International, 2004. |
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K. Dalkir. Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice. Butterworth-Heinemann Publishers, 2005. |
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PM. Hildreth & C. Kimble (Eds). Knowledge Networks: Innovation Through Communities of Practice. Idea Group Publishing, 2004. |
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E. Waltz. Knowledge Management in the Intelligence Enterprise. Artech House Publishers, 2003. |
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I. Watson. Applying Knowledge Management, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2002 |
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D. Morey, M. Maybury & B. Thuraisingham. Knowledge Management. MIT Press, 2002. |
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RJ. Sternberg & JA. Horvath JA (Eds.) Tacit Knowledge in Professional Practice—Researcher and Practitioner Perspectives. Lawrence Erlbaum, 1999. |
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I. Nonaka & H. Takeuchi. The Knowledge Creating Company. Oxford University Press, 1995. |
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S. Albert & K. Bradley. Managing Knowledge: Experts, Agencies and Organisations. Cambridge University Press, 1997. |
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Davenport T, Prusak L. Working knowledge: How organizations manage what they know. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, 1998. |
In addition students are advised to search for journal and conference articles. Quite a large number of healthcare knowledge management articles are available on the WWW and students are expected to search and find them.
Course Regulations
The course regulations and evaluation scheme is given in the course regulations section (see sidebar for tab titled Regulations). Students are advised to routinely check the course website for updates and announcements. It is the student's responsibility to get up-to-date information from the course website.
The deadlines for all deliverables have been set well in advance and students are required to find and follow the stated deadlines. The evaluation criteria for the various components of the course have been provided well in advance and students should prepare themselves accordingly.
Good Luck and Happy Knowledge Management