Course Title: Healthcare Knowledge Management

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Healthcare Knowledge Management

Credit Points: 12.00

Terms

Course Code	Campus	Career	School	Learning Mode	Teaching Period(s)
BUSM4118	City Campus	Postgraduate	620H Business IT and Logistics	Face-to-Face	Sem 2 2010, Sem 2 2011, Sem 2 2012

Course Coordinator: Professor Nilmini Wickramasinghe

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 5783

Course Coordinator Email: nilmini.wickramasinghe@rmit.edu.au

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

None

Course Description

Without exception, all OECD countries are facing exponentially escalating healthcare costs. This crisis in healthcare delivery is forcing governments, healthcare organisations and healthcare providers to evaluate their existing healthcare delivery solutions at both the macro and micro levels and design, develop and implement superior practices and strategies. A recognised critical success factor is the incorporation of intelligence tools and technologies of today’s knowledge economy and hence we are witnessing many and varied e-health solutions. This course provides you with the necessary tools and techniques to be effective in any healthcare context.

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

The essential capabilites developed will include the ability to understand, evaluate and apply:
1. the key characteristics of knowledge and the distinct types of knowledge in healthcare settings;
2. the role of systems thinking in knowledge management in a healthcare context;
3. the economic aspects underpinning the desire to better mange knowledge in order to enable and support superior healthcare delivery;
4. the key role for IS/IT in knowledge management in healthcare;
5. the knowledge management process and the systems that are required at each stage of this process for healthcare settings;
6. how knowledge management, in particular the extraction of germane knowledge is vital in all interactions between and amongst the web of healthcare players;

You will learn how to:
• Develop an understanding of basic research skills applicable to the design, evaluation and implementation of appropriate KM initiatives in healthcare settings;
• Define and analyse the impact, strengths and weaknesses of KM systems in healthcare settings;
• Write reports on the role of KM systems and their impact on facilitating superior healthcare delivery;
• Design a suitable KM architecture for any healthcare setting;
• Apply the concepts, tools techniques, tactics and technologies of KM to any hospital setting;
• Use research methods and analysis together with KM techniques to plan implementation of an appropriate KM

Overview of Learning Activities

You will learn how to design, evaluate, critique and implement appropriate Knowledge Management (KM) solutions for various healthcare settings so that superior healthcare delivery can ensue.
This will be achieved in an active-learning environment focussing on a project in a healthcare setting and supplemented with approriate theoreitical / foundational knowledge.

Overview of Learning Resources

The primary learning resources will include BlackBoard, recommended references eg Healthcare Knowledge Management Primer, 2009 (Routledge series in Information Systems) by N. Wickramasinghe, R. Bali, B. Lehaney, J. Schaffer and M. Gibbons , Routledge New York, and topical recent scholarly journal articles.

Overview of Assessment

Assessemnt may include individual assignments, group projects and presentations.  Topics for all assignments and projects will have relevance to current healthcare issues faced by various healthcare organisations.