Knowledge Management

The objectives of this study were to establish the extent to which information science schools in Kenya offered courses that imparted competencies and skills required by health information professionals; and to establish a range of competencies, skills and attitudes required by health librarians in Kenya in order to be effective in the changing health environment. [from introduction]

Available pharmaceutical information is often characterized by inadequacy, and inaccuracy, which
compromise its quality and usefulness. This study was carried out to examine staff characteristics,
organizational and technical aspects that affect the quality of pharmaceutical information. [from abstract]

Knowledge and effective interventions exist to address many current global health inequities. However, there is limited awareness, uptake, and use of knowledge to inform action to improve the health of disadvantaged
populations. The gap between knowledge and action to improve health equity is of concern to health researchers and practitioners. This study identifies and critically examines the usefulness of existing knowledge to action models or frameworks for promoting health equity. [from abstract]

In international nongovernmental organizations such as Pathfinder International, staff often lack quick and easy access to the expertise of their colleagues due to demands on time, competing priorities, and lack of systems to capture this knowledge. To address this issue, Pathfinder created a collection of high-quality technical resources that also includes the experiences of technical advisors in using the resources.

To systematically review literature on priorities in nursing research on health systems and services in the Region of the Americas as a step toward developing a nursing research agenda that will advance the Regional Strategy for Universal Access to Health and Universal Health Coverage. [from abstract]

Improving the capacity of local researchers in Africa is a recognised way to advance health and development. Numerous approaches to health research capacity strengthening (health RCS) exist, including training for individuals, improving research systems within institutions, and international collaborations among health research agencies. But how do we know if these approaches work and
which are the most effective

The aims of this study were to examine the relationship between campaign awareness and four socio-cognitive variables on changes in physical activity levels among a cohort of adults exposed to a physical activity campaign. Find Thirty every day® was a population-wide, serial mass media campaign delivered in Western Australia. [from abstract]

Good knowledge is essential to prevent disease and improve health. Knowledge management (KM) provides a systematic process and tools to promote access to and use of knowledge among health and development practitioners to improve health and development outcomes. KM tools range from publications and resources (briefs, articles, job aids) and products and services (websites, eLearning courses, mobile applications), to training and events (workshops, webinars, meetings) and approaches and techniques (peer assists, coaching, after-action reviews, knowledge cafés). [from abstract]

This paper evaluates the open educational practices (OEP) of three global health projects operating outside academia—the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions (IACAPAP), the Virtual Campus of
Public Health (VCPH), and Physiopedia. [from abstract]

This resource contains ideas on designing meetings and brownbags that are engaging and build inopportunities for participant dialogue. [from resource]

Aligning strategies and priorities between external (client programs) and internal (organizational) KM is challenging. Save the Children’s Department of Global Health has recently completed the design of several different KM strategies at the organizational, project, and country office levels. During this session, we’ll talk about the processes and resources used to develop those strategies and the many lessons learned. We’ll also discuss the general outlines of the strategies, which you can consider when designing strategies for your own project or organization.

An editorial and bibliography of important citations dealing with health and human resources for health issues in Ethiopia.

Several instruments at both the global and regional levels to which countries in the WHO African Region are party call for action by governments to strengthen national health research systems (NHRS). This paper debates the extent to which Malawi has fulfilled this commitment. [from abstract]

Policymakers, stakeholders and researchers have not been able to find research evidence about health systems using an easily understood taxonomy of topics, know when they have conducted a comprehensive search of the many types of research evidence relevant to them, or rapidly identify decision-relevant information in their search results. [from abstract]

Strengthening primary health care in South Africa is a prerequisite for the successful introduction of National
Health Insurance. Primary care doctors from both the public and private sectors are an essential contributor to achieving this goal. In order to prepare these doctors for their future role, a national diploma training programme is being developed. This study aimed to evaluate the learning needs of primary care doctors and to assist with the design of the diploma. [from abstract]

The research objectives were to (1) describe the current and future roles of hospital librarians and the challenges they face and (2) find evidence supporting the hypothesis that librarians are essential to hospitals in achieving the organizations’ mission-critical goals. [from abstract]

There is a scarcity of empirical data on African country climates for evidence-informed health system policymaking (EIHSP) to backup the longstanding reputation that research evidence is not valued enough by health policymakers as an information input.
Herein, we assess whether and how changes have occurred in the climate for EIHSP before and after the establishment of two Knowledge Translation Platforms housed in government institutions in Cameroon and Uganda since 2006. [from abstract]

The Policy Brief has looked into different systems that produce data on causes of death and laid out some options and potential strategies that countries might follow to rapidly and cost-effectively improve the cause of death information that these systems produce. This in turn would greatly benefit national health planning and increase critical knowledge about disease burden in the region as well as provide accurate information about how it is changing. [from introduction]

There is a scarcity of empirical data on institutions devoted to knowledge brokerage and their influence in Africa. Our objective was to describe two pioneering Knowledge Translation Platforms (KTPs) supporting evidence informed health policymaking (EIHSP) in Cameroon and Uganda.

In an effort to support country-wide learning in improvement initiatives, the USAID ASSIST Project conducted an information needs assessment with government and non-governmental organization (NGO) staff working at the national and district levels of the Ugandan health system from March 2014 to June 2014.

The importance of health policy and systems research and analysis (HPSR?+?A) has been increasingly recognised, but it is still unclear how most effectively to strengthen the capacity of the different organisations involved in this field. Universities are particularly crucial but the expansive literature on capacity development has little to offer the unique needs of HPSR?+?A activity within universities, and often overlooks the pivotal contribution of capacity assessments to capacity strengthening. [from abstract]

Systematic reviews can offer policymakers and stakeholders concise, transparent, and relevant evidence pertaining to pressing policy priorities to help inform the decision-making process. The production and the use of systematic reviews are specifically limited in the Eastern Mediterranean region. The extent to which published systematic reviews address policy priorities in the region is still unknown.

Health and well-being services, in common with many public services, cannot be delivered by a single organisation and require co-ordination across several organisations in a locality. There is some evidence, mostly from other sectors, that middle managers play pivotal roles in this co-ordination by developing networks of relationships with colleagues in other organisations. These networks of relationships, established over time, provide contexts in which managers can, collectively, create the knowledge needed to address the challenges they encounter.

Knowledge management is a process that transforms individual knowledge into organisational knowledge. The aim of this paper is to show that through creating, accumulating, organising and utilising knowledge, organisations can enhance organisational performance. [from abstract]

The paper proposes experimentation with country-specific market data platforms that can integrate relevant evidence from different data sources, and simultaneously exploring strategies to secure better information on private providers and health markets. [from abstract]

This study aims to investigate how NHS middle managers encounter, adapt and apply management knowledge in their working practices and to examine the factors [particularly organisational context, career background and networks of practice (NoPs)/communities of practice (CoPs)] which may facilitate or impede the acceptance of new management knowledge and its integration with practice in health-care settings. [from abstract]

This study focuses on how health and well-being managers collectively create knowledge. [from introduction]

This paper explores how physicians’ attitudes towards evidence-based medicine (EBM) is related to the network position they occupy within healthcare organizations. [from abstract]

This study evaluated a tool that allows health professionals to report the search objective, cognitive impact, use and patient health benefit associated with health information retrieved from electronic knowledge resources. [adapted from author]

This study investigated the implementation of evidence-based practice, which is regarded as core competence to improve healthcare quality, of six groups of professionals: physicians, nurses, pharmacists, physical therapists, technicians, and other allied healthcare personnel.