Implementing a knowledge medium in a multi-centered clinical trial

The health care industry is essentially knowledge-based. Despite of this fact, knowledge management and processing techniques are mainly used in form of isolated systems for very specific domains. The basic processes of knowledge generation, distribution and consumption across domains and locations are not supported by integrated computer systems. Under the growing pressure on quality assurance and cost reduction, concepts and technologies to support the management of knowledge are increasingly gaining the interest of stakeholders. Such a concept-the knowledge medium-is introduced in this paper, and its applicability to the health care domain is demonstrated on the example of a multicentered clinical trial, i.e. the Swiss HIV Cohort Study. We define a knowledge medium as a platform for the exchange and management of knowledge within a specific community of agents. It comprises the following components. Information objects, i.e. interactive carriers containing externalized knowledge; agents who form a community with common interests and goals, a logical system, which defines the common syntax and semantics of the knowledge managed by the medium. We conclude that there great opportunities for knowledge media in the health care domain, and that the development of a knowledge medium must evolve such as to take into account both the processes of knowledge management and the technological convergence.