Summary
Objectives: To discuss research issues for medical informatics in order to support the further
development of health information systems, exploiting knowledge management and information
and communication technology to increase the performance of Health Care Organizations
(HCOs).
Methods: Analyze the potential of exploiting knowledge management technology in medicine.
Results and conclusions: The increasing pressure on HCOs to ensure efficiency and cost-effectiveness, balance
the quality of care, and contain costs will drive them towards more effective management
of medical knowledge derived from biomedical research. Knowledge management technology
may provide effective methods and tools in speeding up the diffusion of innovative
medical procedures. Reviews of the effectiveness of various methods of best practice
dissemination show that the greatest impact is achieved when such knowledge is made
accessible through the health information system at the moment it is required by care
providers at their work sites. There is a need to take a more clinical process view
of health care delivery and to identify the appropriate organizational and information
infrastructures to support medical work. Thus, the great challenge for medical informatics
is represented by the effective exploitation of the astonishing capabilities of new
technologies to assure the conditions of knowledge management and organizational learning
within HCOs.
Keywords
Health care organization - evidence based medicine - patient care process - knowledge
management - careflow management
