Information Systems and Healthcare XXXIV: Clinical Knowledge Management Systems—Literature Review and Research Issues for Information Systems

Knowledge Management (KM) has emerged as a possible solution to many of the challenges facing U.S. and international healthcare systems. These challenges include concerns regarding the safety and quality of patient care, critical inefficiency, disparate technologies and information standards, rapidly rising costs and clinical information overload. In this paper, we focus on clinical knowledge management systems (CKMS) research. The objectives of the paper are to evaluate the current state of knowledge management systems diffusion in the clinical setting, assess the present status and focus of CKMS research efforts, and identify research gaps and opportunities for future work across the medical informatics and information systems disciplines. The study analyzes the literature along two dimensions: (1) the knowledge management processes of creation, capture, transfer, and application, and (2) the clinical processes of diagnosis, treatment, monitoring and prognosis. The study reveals that the vast majority of CKMS research has been conducted by the medical and health informatics communities. Information systems (IS) researchers have played a limited role in past CKMS research. Overall, the results indicate that there is considerable potential for IS researchers to contribute their expertise to the improvement of clinical process through technology-based KM approaches

Patient-oriented Evidence-based Treatment Decision Support System (TreatQuest®) for Lung Cancer

Involving patients in healthcare decisions makes a significant and enduring difference to healthcare outcomes. One challenge for patients is the lack of evidence-based information and tools to support their decision making. Although patients have access to significant information through internet and other sources, it is not personalized for their specific situation. This dissertation attempts to help patients acquire evidence-based information relevant to their own situation, so they can make a more informed decision in co-operation with their physicians. Lung cancer has been selected as a focus for this study because lung cancer presents very complex decision making situation and is the leading cause of cancer deaths in both men and woman in every ethnic group worldwide. The prototype decision support system for lung cancer is called TreatQuest®. This system allows users to create their own profile, access cases similar to their case, and learn about treatment options. The evidences for the treatment were extracted from public data and knowledge gained from guideline. The effectiveness of patient-oriented evidence-based approach was validated by having a group of patient use the system. TreatQuest® is one of the first system developed to support patient\u27s treatment decision process, which represent the most recent trend in delivery of healthcare services. Results from this study show that such a patient-oriented decision support system provides an effective way to help patient receive more personalized information and make informed treatments. In summary, patient-oriented evidence-based decision support systems such as TreatQuest®, can improve the decision quality for patients. Also, such systems can improve health care decisions that are made with the active participation of fully informed patients. Therefore, patient-oriented evidence-based decision support systems can have significant impact on the healthcare industry