We argue that the field of Health Policy and Management (HPAM) ought to confront the gap between theory, policy, and practice. Although there are perennial efforts to reform healthcare systems, the conceptual barriers are considerable and reflect the theory-policy-practice gap. We highlight four dimensions of the gap: 1) the dominance of microeconomic thinking in health policy analysis and desi...

In the practice of law the products and applications of information and communication technologies, such as intranet infrastructures; document, content and case management systems; workflow management systems; artificial intelligence technologies; and business intelligence tools are becoming increasingly important means of communication, of information distribution, and of sharing knowledge. Th...

Knowledge intensive applications rely on the usage of knowledge artifacts, called patterns, to represent in a compact and semantically rich way huge quantity of heterogeneous raw data. Due to the specific characteristics of patterns, specific systems are required for pattern management, in order to model, store, retrieve, and manipulate patterns in an efficient and effective way. Several theore...

After years of research and development, standards and technologies for semantic data are sufficiently mature to be used as the foundation of novel data science projects that employ semantic technologies in various application domains such as bio-informatics, materials science, criminal intelligence, and social science. Typically, such projects are carried out by domain experts who have a conce...

In this month’s “Road Ahead” article, we continue last month’s theme that focused on the role of pathology in the care of our GI patients. Many gastroenterologists have successfully incorporated pathology into their core practices either within a business infrastructure or as part of a larger health care system. Dr Gibson and her colleagues at Yale University School of Medicine have helped info...

This position paper describes a survey of expertise management systems, with the focus on competencies, and their use in four companies. Our interest lies in informing design by investigating features in the systems. Through this we hope to contribute with practical CSCW applications and concepts.

Historical attempts to impose rigid data-based practice and performance standards in the delivery of healthcare have met with resistance from providers, though the personalized nature of healthcare practice required little need for rigorous data quality assessment in daily practice. The rapid adoption of evidence-based decision support systems at the provider level, however, now suggests that t...