title: The state of the art in clinical knowledge management: an inventory of tools and techniques.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: 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
authors.forename: Dean F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Sittig
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: Linas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Simonaitis
authors.forename: James D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Carpenter
authors.forename: George O
authors.initials: GO
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: Bradley N
authors.initials: BN
authors.lastname: Doebbeling
authors.forename: Anwar Mohammad
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Sirajuddin
authors.forename: Joan S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Ash
authors.forename: Blackford
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Middleton
mesh_terms: 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