Knowledge Management for Public Health

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Knowledge management (KM) provides a systematic approach to ensure that public health practitioners have access to the latest research and that they apply that research to public health programs at all levels of the health system—from the global, regional, and national levels down to the front lines. KM is an intentional process that includes identifying the knowledge needs of a particular audience and then generating, curating, and sharing relevant knowledge to help programs and organizations succeed.

Public health organizations that adopt KM strategies and practices can improve performance of health care workers and programs and contribute to reaching the end goal of improving health outcomes among communities. Using KM, public health programs can:

  • Promote collaboration and learning
  • Inform policy and advocacy
  • Improve programs, practice, and research
  • Enhance health training and education programs

KM programs are supported by three key components: people, processes, and technology.

  • People generate, store, and share knowledge and can help cultivate an environment that encourages knowledge sharing and use of KM systems.
  • Processes are the methods used to capture, curate, and share knowledge. These formal and informal processes must be embraced and integrated into an organization’s daily work flow to be most successful.
  • Use of technology that is appropriate to the context can expedite knowledge storage, retrieval, and exchange.

KM has particular relevance for low- and middle-income country settings. It can address human resource issues related to retaining organizational knowledge and can provide mechanisms for purposefully exchanging needed knowledge in real time. Implementing a KM system can ensure that relevant health knowledge—data, research findings, best practices, programmatic guidance—flows up and down the health system, from national to district to community levels and back up again. KM approaches also facilitate the exchange of information across a given level of the health system, improving the effectiveness and efficiency of public health programs.

To learn more about how to integrate KM into your program:

 

  • Blog post
    June 01, 2012

    Global Health Knowledge Collaborative Presents at ICA Conference

    The Knowledge for Health (K4Health) Project plays a rare dual role in the field of Knowledge Management (KM): we help advance and promote KM best practices as a means of improving the effectiveness of development practice, while also helping to demonstrate that KM can also be an effective public health intervention.

    Global Health Knowledge Collaborative (GHKC)
    ICA
    Communities of Practice
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  • Publications & Resources
    May 22, 2012

    Ethiopia Family Planning/Reproductive Health Information Needs Assessment and Network Mapping - Full Report

    K4Health conducted a health information needs assessment and Network Mapping (Net-Map) study in Ethiopia. The study sought to:

    1. Examine the FP/RH knowledge management and exchange system in Ethiopia at the national, regional, and district/woreda levels;
    2. Explain key determinants to accessing and using the latest FP/RH research and model practices; and
    3. Identify ways to leverage networks and resources to transfer up-to-date research on FP/RH into practice.
    Net-Map
  • Event
    June 20, 2012 (All day) to June 22, 2012 (All day)
    Baltimore, MD. USA

    Knowledge Management for Public Health Course

    This course introduces participants to and demystifies jargon behind Knowledge Management (KM), an intentional process that includes capturing, storing, organizing, and exchanging knowledge to better inform decision-making and to improve public health outcomes. In the context of public health, introduces KM as a systematic approach to ensure that the latest research is accessible and applied to public health practice.

  • Event
    June 19, 2012 (All day) to June 20, 2012 (All day)
    Washington, DC. USA

    Mobilizing Knowledge Networks for Development

    The goal of the workshop is to explore ways to become better providers and connectors of knowledge in a world where the sources of knowledge are increasingly diverse and disbursed.Come and explore the web of networks of development practitioners, academics, and policy makers.  Find out why these networks are so vital for change agents all over the world in their quest for solutions to the challenging development issues facing our various clients.   

  • Blog post
    May 09, 2012

    Changing the Conversation about Technology in Development: Report from SwitchPoint 2012

    On April 20, 2012, I attended IntraHealth’s first annual conference on innovation and global health, SwitchPoint 2012. It was a reinvigorating experience! The focus wasn’t on all the global health problems in the world and boiling people down to statistics, but rather on the potential for true co-created solutions – with all of the technological improvements, possibilities, and cultural shifts throughout the world.

    Knowledge Management
    Community Participation
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  • Event
    October 17, 2012 (All day) to October 19, 2012 (All day)
    Washington, DC, USA

    KM World 2012

    KMWorld 2012 provides you with all the essential pieces of the information engine that powers your enterprise—including knowledge creation, publishing, sharing, finding, mining, reuse and more, which work together to enable business problem-solving, innovation, and achievement. Position your organization and its knowledge ecology for success by attending KMWorld 2012, where you network with experts and peers all working to make the most out of their knowledge assets. Gain insights for maximizing your human capital and building a knowledge driven organization.

  • Event
    September 14, 2012 (All day)
    Washington, DC, USA

    Global Health Mini-University

    The Mini-University is an annual forum that brings together professionals working in a variety of Global Health areas for a day long event that offers a variety of presentations highlighting evidence-based best practices and state-of-the-art information.The forum is divided into hour-long blocks, each offering a variety of concurrent presentations from technical areas like HIV/AIDS, family planning and reproductive health, maternal and child health, infectious diseases, health systems, and cross-cutting issues.In addition to gaining access to technical knowledge, participants are also able

  • Blog post
    April 25, 2012

    On World Malaria Day Momentum Still Needed to Sustain Current Efforts

    Despite increased prevention and control measures "dramatically reducing the malaria burden in many places," in 2010 an estimated 655,000 people died from the disease - most of them African children, according the latest Fact Sheet from the World Health Organization.

    World Malaria Day, April 25th 2012: Momentum Still Needed to Sustain Current Efforts

    A girl awakens in her bed covered with an anti-malarial mosquito net in Dundube Kadambo, Malawi. The widespread use of bednets is one of several effective measures to cut down on the transmission of malaria. © 2008 Paul Jeffrey, Courtesy of Photoshare

     

    Malaria mortality rates have fallen by more than 25% globally since 2000, and by 33% in the WHO African Region, according to the World Malaria Report 2011, but in Africa one child still dies every minute from the disease, accounting for around 90% of all malaria mortality.

    “Sustain Gains, Save Lives: Invest in Malaria” is this year’s World Malaria Day Theme as international organizations and ministries of health race to meet the 2015 Millenium Development Goal 6: Halt  and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.  

    Major efforts from USAID for preventing and treating malaria include:

    • Insecticide-treated mosquito nets
    • Indoor residual spraying
    • Intermittent prevention treatment  for pregnant women
    • Lifesaving drugs
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  • Blog post
    April 25, 2012

    “A product that pretty much sells itself”: Packaging our field experience so it’s irresistible

    While working on a U.S.-based project on obesity, I’d had a gratifying experience with concept testing. It confirmed what I’d thought for a long time – that concept testing, or trying a variety of concepts or message approaches with real audience members, can help you hone in on messages that really resonate.

    I wanted to share my excitement and convince my international development colleagues that concept testing could work for them, too. So, I put together a PowerPoint for practitioners like myself, in the business of behavior change.

    Alive and Thrive Image

    Despite a warm reception from my colleagues at a lunchtime presentation, a couple of eager 20-somethings were having trouble keeping their eyes open for the full 40 minutes. I tried again in one of our field offices overseas, but it didn’t really make sense to them because the whole project, focusing on obesity, was so very American. And even with a select, receptive audience (okay, I guess people closer to my demographic could sit through it…), my beautifully animated PowerPoint didn’t work without me there to deliver the story. I had a product, but I had to work pretty hard to sell it.

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  • Blog post
    April 25, 2012

    Connecting Development Sectors with Infographics

    How does agriculture, education, gender, and combatting poverty affect the health sector in low-income countries? Here are a few innovative infographic examples that show the links from Farming First and USAID.

    What are Infographics?

    Handweeding Infographic

    Infographics are a new,  powerful  internet-based communication medium that  marry pictures and words so people can absorb a host of important information without wading through a multitude of reports.

    In this time where everything is fast paced, information must be quick and easy to digest. Infographics have become an easy way to display key information visually. In one glance, a person can look at an infographic and take away important facts.

    I want to briefly discuss two different infographics and how they express concrete ideas about poverty and international development through the same medium.  Although these examples look at development in different ways—one more focused on agriculture and the other on combatting poverty—there is no doubt that these two sectors, together with education and gender, are interrelated and have a dramatic effect on the health and wellbeing of families in low-income countries.

    Using Infographics to Illustrate Complex Data

    Infographics from Farming First, “the Female Face of Farming,” explore the role of women in agriculture and ask three main questions:

    ·         Why are women so  important to agriculture?

    ·         Where does a gender gap in agriculture exist?

    ·         What are the impacts of the gender gap in agriculture?

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