An ontological framework for knowledge sharing in healthcare

Abstract

Introduction: The ability to share EHR’s (Electronic Health Record) underlying knowledge both internally and externally within healthcare organizations has been accepted as a method to improve the quality and delivery of care but has also raised important questions related to legal and privacy issues. This paper aims to explore the critical factors that impact knowledge sharing in the French healthcare sector. Our main research focus is to answer the question of how to improve Knowledge sharing in the healthcare sector? Methodology: An exploratory qualitative study was handled to investigate EHR’s underlying Knowledge sharing. We conducted non-directive, face-to-face interviews with physicians working in different healthcare institutions. Results: Three major issues were identified, namely the need for: a common healthcare terminology, the interoperability among healthcare information systems and the patient's informed consents before sharing his sensitive data. Conclusions : This paper proposes an ontological framework that extends the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms with privacy dimension, to secure access to sensitive patient’s data. This study has limitations that could be addressed by future studies. First, the size of the sample is limited. Further explorations of knowledge sharing among other kinds of workers (e.g. nurse) and other countries would add richness to the phenomena and associations described in this paper.