How can knowledge exchange portals assist in knowledge management for evidence-informed decision making in public health?

Emma Quinn,Carmen Huckel-Schneider,Andrew J Milat,Danielle Campbell,Holly Seale

doi:10.1186/1471-2458-14-443

Abstract

BackgroundKnowledge exchange portals are emerging as web tools that can help facilitate knowledge management in public health. We conducted a review to better understand the nature of these portals and their contribution to knowledge management in public health, with the aim of informing future development of portals in this field.MethodsA systematic literature search was conducted of the peer-reviewed and grey literature to identify articles that described the design, development or evaluation of Knowledge Exchange Portals KEPs in the public health field. The content of the articles was analysed, interpreted and synthesised in light of the objectives of the review.ResultsThe systematic search yielded 2223 articles, of which fifteen were deemed eligible for review, including eight case studies, six evaluation studies and one commentary article. Knowledge exchange portals mainly included design features to support knowledge access and creation, but formative evaluation studies examining user needs suggested collaborative features supporting knowledge exchange would also be useful. Overall web usage statistics revealed increasing use of some of these portals over time; however difficulties remain in retaining users. There is some evidence to suggest that the use of a knowledge exchange portal in combination with tailored and targeted messaging can increase the use of evidence in policy and program decision making at the organisational level.ConclusionsKnowledge exchange portals can be a platform for providing integrated access to relevant content and resources in one location, for sharing and distributing information and for bringing people together for knowledge exchange. However more performance evaluation studies are needed to determine how they can best support evidence-informed decision making in public health.

Highlights

Knowledge exchange portals are emerging as web tools that can help facilitate knowledge management in public health
Scope The review included analysis of the peer-review and grey literature to answer the following questions: 1) What are the common knowledge management design features of Knowledge Exchange Portal (KEP) in the public health field? 2) How can KEPs assist in knowledge management for public health professionals? 3) Have KEPs been effective in terms of their uptake and facilitation of knowledge management in public health practice?
Of the 15 articles, eight were case studies [21,22,26,27,29,30,31,33], six were evaluation studies [19,20,23,24,25,32] and one was a commentary/editorial article [28]. In these 15 articles, eight publicly accessible portals were discussed as listed in Table 1, two portals were each the subject of two articles i.e. Health Evidence [20,21] and the National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools (NCCMT) [25,32] and two portals cited in the literature were no longer accessible, either through discontinuation [28] or an incorrect web address [23]

Summary

Introduction

Knowledge exchange portals are emerging as web tools that can help facilitate knowledge management in public health. Portals have evolved from being an efficient web tool for the one-way retrieval and transfer of information, to a platform for two-way collaboration and exchange among people in different organisations or professions, i.e. knowledge portals or knowledge exchange portals (KEPs) [9,10,11] It appears that KEPs can facilitate knowledge management through three core activities, depending on their available design features and functions [11,12,13]: (i) knowledge access, by providing a single integrated point of access to a variety of relevant organisational or topic-specific information; (ii) knowledge creation, by creating and maintaining knowledge directories about portal generated content; and (iii) knowledge transfer and exchange, by facilitating information sharing and distribution and providing collaborative features that help to foster communities of practice. We conducted a systematic review of the literature to better understand the nature of these portals and their contribution to knowledge management in public health, with the aim of informing future development of portals in this field

Methods

Results

Conclusion