141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

285779
Harnessing the wisdom of the crowd in professional virtual communities

Wednesday, November 6, 2013 : 8:50 AM - 9:10 AM

Rebecca Weintraub, MD , The Global Health Delivery Project at Harvard University, Boston, MA
Aaron Beals , The Global Health Delivery Project at Harvard University, Boston, MA
Sophie Beauvais , The Global Health Delivery Project at Harvard University, Boston, MA
Marie Connelly , The Global Health Delivery Project at Harvard University, Boston, MA
Aaron VanDerlip , The Global Health Delivery Project at Harvard University, Boston, MA
Knowledge management (KM) is an essential business practice that all organizations and especially health care providers should undertake to stay abreast of latest developments and best practices and deliver quality health care. With the explosion of health informatics, most activities for KM now take place on the Internet. However, health care professionals in resource-limited settings are often unable to access the latest literature and research, attend international conferences, discuss challenges with colleagues, and get advice from experts. Without an opportunity for discussions to occur between professionals from disparate settings and sectors that can promote knowledge creation, transfer; and feedback loops, the potential of information to have real-life impact is diminished. Professional Virtual Communities (PVCs) create these opportunities. They are vital to spreading information, identifying new research questions, and translating and testing new tools. Participants will be introduced to Global Health Delivery Online (GHDonline.org), a platform of expert-led PVCs supported by Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School where more than 8,600 global health professionals join in virtual discussions and expert panels, and access best practices and partner services at no cost. Web tools and examples of exchanges in the communities will demonstrate the potential impact of and the opportunities for engaging in PVCs for all health care providers, from an administrator in rural hospital in Nepal able to update TB infection control protocols and renovate the laboratory to a software developer in Pakistan honing in on unique patient identifiers for an electronic medical records system.

Learning Areas:
Communication and informatics

Learning Objectives:
Explain the role of professional virtual communities for improving the delivery of health care in resource-limited settings. Discuss one health delivery topic in a professional virtual community. Formulate new practices by engaging in a professional virtual community.

Keywords: Internet, Peer Information Network

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the communications and web content manager for the Global Health Delivery Project at Harvard University which developed and runs GHDonline.org.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.