Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The objective here is to describe customer participation from a knowledge man-
agement perspective and to derive a few important research propositions that would
inform on the strategies and practices that healthcare organizations would need to
adopt to facilitate it and enhance the value offered to consumers.
The real world manifestation of knowledge management activities in the health-
care context occurs in the form of
health information websites
maintained by
different healthcare organizations as well as
online health communities
and dis-
cussion forums. Broadly, we posit that these two types of online consumer health
resources or facilities together offer opportunities for new knowledge creation by
consumers - specifically opportunities to socialize, combine, internalize, and exter-
nalize knowledge. We start with the role of online health communities in facilitating
knowledge socialization and knowledge externalization.
8.6.1 Online Health Communities and Knowledge
Socialization/Externalization
Traditionally, for knowledge socialization and knowledge externalization to occur,
members would need to be at physical proximity so that they can be involved in
shared experiences that would allow conversion of tacit knowledge into tacit or
explicit knowledge. In the healthcare context, an example would be that of a med-
ical resident learning from an attending physician. Such tacit knowledge resides
within experts and if opportunities for knowledge socialization do not exist, such
knowledge is typically lost when the expert leaves the organization.
Knowledge socialization also occurs in the consumer context. For example, a
patient may gain additional tacit knowledge about a disease if any of the other family
members are also dealing or have dealt with the same disease. Through storytelling
and the sharing of experiences, patients may learn unique aspects of the particular
disease (or associated treatments) that are not available as explicit knowledge any-
where else. However, typically such knowledge resides only within that particular
family unit and hence opportunities to share with other people are often limited.
A radical change is occurring in both these types of knowledge conversions with
the easy access to online discussion forums and communities that connect people
and help implement the network model. First, consider online physician communi-
ties - such communities enable experts to converse with one another and share tacit
knowledge derived from their unique experiences.
A good example of this is the online physician community called “Sermo.”
Sermo is an online community that is accessible only to physicians - it allows them
to post their medical observations, discuss new clinical findings, report unusual
medical experiences, and work together to improve patient care. The connections
made between physicians working in the same area and their continued con-
versations become the vehicle for both knowledge socialization and knowledge
externalization (Halperin, 2007)
The same applies in the consumer context. The earlier-mentioned example
of “Life Raft” community is a good illustration of this potential for supporting
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