More than plant, property, or equipment, an organization's most valuable asset is its knowledge base. Information is everywhere "printed on paper, encoded in electronic memory, encased in employees' minds. Knowledge management is a powerful tool in business today. As the Harvard Business Review article points out, the key is to bake specialized knowledge into the jobs of highly skilled workers. Capturing this knowledge is difficult, and in some cases almost impossible. .
Dr. Bob Goldszer, chief medical officer at Special Services Department at Brigham and Women's in Boston, expanded knowledge management to the health care industry. Medical knowledge management is complex with 10,000 different diseases and syndromes, 3,000 medications, 1,100 laboratory tests and over 400,000 articles published each year. Medical errors resulted in 98,000 deaths according to a 1999 Institute of Medicine report. Knowledge management can help "check- a doctor's recommendation, which could result in a patient having an adverse reaction. The major advantage of knowledge management at Brigham's hospital is sharing of knowledge makes the process easier for the physicians to do their jobs. Another advantage is information is retrieved in a real time environment. Busy physicians do not have time to wait for critical input or a response. The system promptly generates recommendations letting physicians know if decisions need to be refined. Based on a controlled study, knowledge management combined with technology has decreased medication errors by 55%. The study also revealed improvements not only save lives, but money. The system can recommend less expensive drugs and can prevent long hospital stays. .
I found the most interesting aspect of the article to be the Keys to Success. Embedded-knowledge systems are key, but just as important are the nontechnical, managerial aspect required to keep the systems running smoothly.