Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #112498

Barbara L. Massoudi, MPH PhD, Northrop Grumman Health Solutions, 3375 Northeast Expressway NE, Atlanta, GA 30341, 404.414.7995, barbara.massoudi@ngc.com and Taha A. Kass-Hout, MD MS, Public Health Division, Northrop Grumman Corporation, 3375 NE Expressway, Koger Center/Harvard Building, Atlanta, GA 30341.

The most valuable asset in any public health organization is the expertise held by its individuals. This expertise, consisting of both explicit and tacit knowledge is often difficult to capture and share. The Expertise Resource Center (ERC) was designed and developed to capture expertise among employees in a large public health informatics organization along four primary domains: public health; information technology; public health informatics; and, management. This web-based software application allows individuals to input information about their own competencies, skills within those competencies; experience with software and information technology tools; educational background and degrees; training and certifications; work history; foreign languages, military history; publications; awards; patents; and, professional memberships. This information is shared across the organization and provides a human aspect to knowledge in addition to contextual based information widely available through traditional sources (books, journals, websites, etc.) Benefits attributable to the system include the ability to identify unique and/or cross-disciplinary skills; to quantify experience level within particular skill areas; to conduct individual and organizational knowledge gap analyses; to identify target audiences for training; to manage professional development plans; identify and locate potential mentors; and, to stimulate the growth of self-organized communities of practice. Challenges presented in the implementation of the ERC, an evaluation of its effectiveness, and strategies for enhancing user motivation and commitment to keeping the information current are discussed.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize the importance of knowledge within the public health organization.
• Describe the elements that comprise tacit knowledge.
• Evaluate the need for a system to manage expertise within their organization and/or partners.

Keywords: Public Health Informatics, Workforce

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commertial supporters WITH THE EXCEPTION OF Employment with company that produced software application described in presentation..

Recorded presentation