The state of the art in clinical knowledge management: an inventory of tools and techniques.
OBJECTIVE
To explore the need for, and use of, high-quality, collaborative, clinical knowledge management (CKM) tools and techniques to manage clinical decision support (CDS) content.


METHODS
In order to better understand the current state of the art in CKM, we developed a survey of potential CKM tools and techniques. We conducted an exploratory study by querying a convenience sample of respondents about their use of specific practices in CKM.


RESULTS
The following tools and techniques should be priorities in organizations interested in developing successful computer-based provider order entry (CPOE) and CDS implementations: (1) a multidisciplinary team responsible for creating and maintaining the clinical content; (2) an external organizational repository of clinical content with web-based viewer that allows anyone in the organization to review it; (3) an online, collaborative, interactive, Internet-based tool to facilitate content development; (4) an enterprise-wide tool to maintain the controlled clinical terminology concepts. Even organizations that have been successfully using computer-based provider order entry with advanced clinical decision support features for well over 15 years are not using all of the CKM tools or practices that we identified.


CONCLUSIONS
If we are to further stimulate progress in the area of clinical decision support, we must continue to develop and refine our understanding and use of advanced CKM capabilities.
Sittig
Dean F
DF
UT-Memorial Hermann Center for Healthcare Quality and Safety, University of Texas School of Health Information Science, 6410 Fannin Street, Houston, TX 77030, USA. dean.f.sittig@uth.tmc.edu
Wright
Adam
A
Simonaitis
Linas
L
Carpenter
James D
JD
Allen
George O
GO
Doebbeling
Bradley N
BN
Sirajuddin
Anwar Mohammad
AM
Ash
Joan S
JS
Middleton
Blackford
B
D020000:Decision Support Systems, Clinical / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006751:Hospital Information Systems; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D020407:Internet; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D010348:Patient Care Team; D012984:Software; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D014481:United States; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D018875:Vocabulary, Controlled