Pediatric Informatics: Computer Applications in Child Health (Health ...

Chapter 13
Managing Pediatric Knowledge Resources
in Practice
Prudence W. Dalrymple, Bernard A. Cohen and John S. Clark
Objectives
To guide clinicians in aligning information needs and resources in practice
To list a practical inventory of information resources available to pediatricians
13.1 Introduction
Information and communication technology (ICT) provides busy clinicians with
access to timely health information: e-mail updates, online educational programs,
podcasts etc. to the point of overload. The abundance of information has increased
user expectations about the availability of timely and useful medical information,
but has perhaps reduced user objectivity in distinguishing evidence from opinion
and advertisement as messages from different sources: professional associations,
patient groups, pharmaceutical companies, news agencies and policymakers are all
cast along the same channels in similar formats.
An ongoing problem for working clinicians is how to manage available information
resources to provide the best care for patients while staying informed and
current without becoming overwhelmed. Beyond the technical aspects of how to
approach this problem (how to choose and use tools and resources) are considerations
of which resources are free and which should be purchased (or leased).
13.2 A Cognitive Model of Clinical Information Use
Choosing “best” information sources requires understanding of how clinicians need
them in practice. During clinical encounters, they discover and prioritize questions,
many of which may be easily answered, some which may be ignored, some
which may trigger further queries (history, exam, laboratory test), and others which
require selecting and consulting appropriate resources.
C.U. Lehmann et al. (eds.), Pediatric Informatics: Computer Applications 185
in Child Health, Health Informatics,
© Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009