Medical Management Articles
-
Knowledge representation issues in ontology-based clinical Knowledge Management systems
Clinical Knowledge-Management (KM) represents a specific category of KM that requires specific support. Clinical knowledge mixes formal scientific knowledge with a person-culture in which the expertise of clinicians is key. In KM life-cycles, this entails that the required processes associated to clinical knowledge diverge from other kind of activities. Further, the technological support required ...
-
Managing personal medical knowledge: agent-based knowledge acquisition
Information that is available on the World Wide Web (WWW) is already more vast than can be comprehensibly studied by individuals and is increasing at a staggering pace. Health consumerism is fuelled by knowledgeable patients. A key to health consumerism is locating reliable health information on the WWW. Unfortunately, much health information on the web is of suspect quality. Differences between ...
-
Managing clinical knowledge among hospital nurses
Knowledge Management (KM) tools and processes, while established in many industries, are relatively new to healthcare. Healthcare organisations resemble virtual organisations that build flexible and dynamic care networks of multiple medical providers and professionals to address a patient's needs. This research studies the major factors impacting clinical KM strategy and processes in the floor ...
-
Managing, measuring and reporting knowledge-based resources in hospitals
The paper firstly analyses the importance of knowledge-based resources for the achievement of a competitive advantage for the firm. Additionally, the paper also addresses the strategic significance of this type of intangible resources in hospitals. Secondly, the paper argues that "what is measured is managed" and, therefore, proposes specific indicators to measure the different types of ...
-
Knowledge Representation issues in structural engineering: a framework for application in the case of structures in healthcare
We survey the literature on Applications of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning Techniques to Structural Engineering. We focus on the aspects related to healthcare: Hospitals and Structures related to accidents and emergencies, which are actors of the healthcare system. The conclusions of the review are three: focus is necessarily on actual systems for industrial uses; there are three trends ...
-
Applying cluster analysis to build a patient-centric healthcare service strategy for elderly patients
Cluster analysis can be viewed as a cornerstone for customer-centred services since it contributes to classification and segmentation of customers. The proposed six-step approach is based on a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) perspective and hence enables both patient segmentation by cluster analysis and development of customised services. The six steps are selection, preprocessing, ...
-
Drug effectiveness reporting and monitoring systems: discussion and prototype development
While tracking systems have been developed to decrease occurrences and consequences of medication errors in healthcare facilities, there is a growing need for similar systems to monitor drugs that have just entered the market with unknown adverse events. Between 1997 and 2005, the FDA's MedWatch system successfully identified 15 drugs with toxic side-effects; it took an average of 5.9 years for ...
-
Implementation Methodology of Evidence-Based Medicine based on technological diffusion approach: a case of system establishment within the hospital industry
The potential of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) is to support medical research, improve medical quality and promote competitive advantage in the hospital industry. Due to a growing body of medical knowledge, the implementation of EBM is mainly focused on the implementation of knowledge management systems. Thus, a technological diffusion approach is a promising solution to implementation of EBM ...
-
A generic approach to computer-based Clinical Practice Guideline management using the ECA Rule paradigm and active databases
The increasing demand for reduced cost and improved quality of service in healthcare has prompted the call for better management of medical knowledge. The main emphasis has been on knowledge that is acquired through experience and medical research and then formalised into Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs). This paper presents a generic approach to CPG information and knowledge management that ...
-
Life at all costs: European precautionary policies on xenotransplantation
Xenotransplantation is becoming an independent political and regulatory issue. Most national regulations and international recommendations prescribe a precautionary approach, including strict monitoring and surveillance of patients. This is due to the risk of xenosis, a disease induced by non-human biological material. The paper shows how the precautionary approach violates fundamental principles ...
-
Semantic Web and Knowledge Management for the health domain: state of the art and challenges for the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) of the European Union (2007-2013)
Information Systems in the context of the health domain play a critical role. The evolution of the semantic web and knowledge management technologies in the last years set a new context for the exploitation of patient-centric strategies based on well-defined semantics and knowledge. In this paper we have two critical objectives. On the one hand to exploit the state of the art on Semantic Web and ...
-
Achieving knowledge management integration through EAI: a case study from healthcare sector
Healthcare Information Systems (IS) non-integrated nature is associated with inefficient data and knowledge exchange and reduction in healthcare care services' quality. Therefore, numerous medical errors occur that impact healthcare services. Healthcare organisations have used Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) to integrate IS. Literature indicates that EAI achieves integration at four ...
-
Using ontology-based knowledge networks for user training in managing healthcare processes
The cooperative and collaborative nature of healthcare delivery requires active user participation in healthcare process design/redesign. Hence, there is a need to provide users with reusable, flexible, agile and adaptable training material in order to enable them instil their knowledge and expertise in healthcare process modelling and automation activities. This paper presents a prototype ...
-
Longitudinal knowledge strategising in a long-term healthcare organisation
Long-term healthcare organisations significantly benefit from Knowledge Management (KM). However, the extant literature has little empirical support for this statement. Using the KM instrument developed by Bontis and Fitz-enz (2002), this paper extends prior studies by evaluating behaviours within a not-for-profit context over several years. As such, it tests a comprehensive causal model that ...
-
Better health for all
Ensuring basic health care for people in low-income countries is critical to the Plan B goal of eradicating poverty and stabilizing population. While heart disease and cancer (largely the diseases of aging), obesity, and smoking dominate health concerns in industrial countries, in developing countries infectious diseases are the overriding health concern. Besides AIDS, the principal diseases of ...
-
What price health?
When it comes to health care, the balance between cost and effectiveness is a difficult one to strike. The injection of $1.1 billion into the US system therefore needs to produce sustainable results. A middle-aged man appears in a US emergency room complaining of chest pains. Tests show that an arterial blockage is starving his heart of oxygen. He could have treatment A, or treatment B. Which ...
-
Health implications of mercury exposure in children
Mercury is a ubiquitous environmental toxin that can produce a wide range of health effects in humans. It is found in three chemical forms: organic, inorganic and elemental (mercury). The sources of exposure are also markedly different for the different forms of mercury. Diet, especially fish and other seafood, is the main source of exposure of the general public to organic mercury. Dental ...
-
Building effective institutional frameworks to support pharmacogenetic research: an international empirical analysis
As science unravels the genetic basis of disease, the opportunities offered by pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics (PGx) for future healthcare become more and more apparent. The objective of this paper is to analyse the current state of PGx research and explore future strategies for more efficient research projects and supportive infrastructures. Based on internet searches and an online survey ...
-
Indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants and challenges in developing ethnoharmacology in Africa: example of Oku, Cameroon
Most traditional African cultures believe that, to maintain the health and vitality of human beings, they have to address forces in both the natural and the spiritual world. This paper uses a participatory approach to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the traditional health system. It presents some concepts and practices, some characteristics of indigenous knowledge ...
-
Impact of the life sciences on organisation and management of R&D in large pharmaceutical firms
The life sciences are having a significant impact on the organisation and management of R&D in large pharmaceutical firms, as well as restructuring the markets for new therapeutic products. However, there is continuing scepticism about large firms' ability or inclination to build in-house capacity for biologics and extract value from the life sciences. This paper explores the effect of life ...
Need help finding the right suppliers? Try XPRT Sourcing. Let the XPRTs do the work for you