Healthcare knowledge management - Research Paper Example

? Healthcare Knowledge Management Healthcare Knowledge Management: The Art of the Possible This paper is a critical analysis of a qualitative healthcare study titled, Healthcare Knowledge Management: The Art of the Possible by Syed Sibte Raza Abidi. It was published by Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg in 2008. Problem Statement Healthcare and the field of medicine are areas which are characterized by rich knowledge. However, this knowledge is often underutilized especially during times of care or need. There is exponential growth, in the healthcare sector, in the understanding of diseases, procedures for treatment and measures of patient care. On the other hand, this significant growth has resulted in healthcare knowledge to tend to a flux because of the generation of new knowledge at a fast pace. It is necessary to note that the utilization of this knowledge significantly impacts healthcare delivery, health outcomes and patient care. The ability of the clinical personnel or staff is also not congruent in the appropriate dissemination, application and translation of the healthcare knowledge that is currently generated in the clinical practice (Jackson, 2000). This form of knowledge is usually available in a different medium, but occurs in large volumes thus posing a challenge to the healthcare experts to be aware and implement the pertinent and relevant parts to the decisions of patient care. These decisions need to rely on the most relevant, appropriate and current knowledge available, and implement alongside the available data on point-of-care patient as well as in line with the therapeutic references of the patients. Recent studies have also proven that healthcare professionals have limited access and implementation of the current healthcare knowledge, and this ultimately affects the most sensitive part which is the optimal healthcare delivery to patients. Several surveys and studies have reported over 98,000 deaths of patients each year due to preventable errors. Another study revealed that 11% patients admitted to hospitals experienced or encountered adverse events, 48% of the occurrences would have been prevented if the right and relevant knowledge is applicable (Bates et al, 2003). These evidences show the under utilization of the continuously generated healthcare knowledge, which results to wrong clinical decisions, under utilization of resources, medical errors and high costs of healthcare delivery. Purpose and Research Questions Healthcare knowledge is highly critical in decision making, in clinical situations involving the diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Implementation of this knowledge in the correct way ensures effective diagnostic decisions and subsequent working therapeutic regimes. Decision making by clinical experts occurs in a cyclic way characterized by application of the healthcare knowledge in validating the initial hypotheses, which meets the requirements of the final decision and deals with potential challenges (Montani & Bellazzi, 2002). There is dynamic contextualization of the healthcare knowledge in interpreting the health status of a patient, and finding the right treatment interventions that suit each patient, in a specific situation or clinical condition. The key to achieving such successful and effective decisions and treatment regimes is by making the relevant, current and correct knowledge available to clinical professionals in line to their clinical context. The author believes that the timely and effective use of such knowledge can transform the potential and nature of healthcare practices. This has the sure potential of yielding high and quality levels of team care, patient care, patient centeredness, quality care, and cost effective healthcare (Bali & Dwivedi, 2006). The aims of management of healthcare knowledge are to address the gaps in knowledge applicable to the system of healthcare, either as a pragmatic practice or a theme of emerging research. The author aims at describing the management of healthcare management, and the ways it improves the delivery of healthcare, practice and healthcare outcomes. The qualitative method used by the author in achieving this objective is through characterizing the objectives, definition and uses of healthcare knowledge management. The author explores the various forms of healthcare knowledge and the modalities of management of healthcare knowledge, which are heterogeneous. The author also provides functional portfolios of managing healthcare knowledge, and the future trends of healthcare management. Literature Review The author mainly cited qualitative studies, which are in line with the objectives or aims of the study, as well as to provide the right flow of information in expounding on the qualitative nature of the study. The author also includes several guidelines on clinical practices, various models from other studies, information from forums of other clinical professionals. The author uses relevant literature on the various models of the artifacts of healthcare knowledge and clinical practice guidelines. Since the article was done and published, in 2008, makes most of the references used were current and fitted in the 5-year limit. The author explains the weaknesses of some of these models and knowledge artifacts, which he claims are paper based thus can not implemented in effective clinical practices via computerized application of the clinical practices. Implementation of knowledge contained in the ontologies such as strategies or guidelines of effective decision making based on the data availed by the patients. This is mainly due to limited engines of sound reasoning over the knowledge contained in the ontologies (Shiffman et al, 2007). The literature review also provides sufficient information for a logical argument and analysis. The author incorporates valid information on the principles, guidelines and practices in the clinical field in developing knowledgeable healthcare professionals. The author describes various models and strategies of healthcare knowledge management, and the current advancement in the application of healthcare knowledge management. Conceptual / Theoretical Framework. The author described a conceptual framework from the study findings which involved the strategy of healthcare knowledge management. This framework targeted to create awareness on the importance of current healthcare knowledge and its application in clinical practice. It also involved understanding the workflow of healthcare delivery, the constraints of available resources and priorities of the ultimate beneficiaries. The framework also maps and outlines the flow of existing knowledge in the clinical facilities and deriving the opportunities of implementing the solutions offered by effective management of healthcare knowledge. The perceptions of the concerned stakeholders are also incorporated on the relevance of the generated knowledge and its application. The framework also explores the ways of availing such healthcare knowledge and ensuring easy access to the healthcare professionals and the respective stakeholders (Abidi, 2008). References Abidi, S.S.R. (2008). Healthcare Knowledge Management: The Art of the Possible. New York: Springer. Bali, R. & Dwivedi, A. (2006). Healthcare Knowledge Management: Issues, Advances and Successes. New York: Springer. Bates, G.J., Kuperman, S., Wang, T., Gandhi, A. & Kittler, L. (2003). Ten Commandments for Effective Clinical Decision Support: Making the Practice of Evidence-based Medicine a Reality. J. Am. Med. Inform. Assoc. 10, 523–530. Jackson, J.R. (2000). The Urgent Call for Knowledge Management in Medicine. Physician Exec. 26, 28–31. Montani, S. & Bellazzi, R. (2002). Supporting Decisions in Medical Applications: The Knowledge Management Perspective. Intl. Journal of Medical Informatics, 68, 79–90. Shiffman, R.N., Karras, B.T., Agrawal, A., et al. (2000). GEM: A Proposal for a More Comprehensive Guideline Document Model Using XML. JAMIA, 7, 488–498. Read More