Knowledge management in the medical community: Grand Rounds
In the past few years, there has been a rise in medical blogs and now there is a distinct 'medical blogging community' here on the Internet. I've been thinking for some time about the role these blogs play with respect to knowledge management in this community. I'm especially fascinated by Grand Rounds, a weekly blog carnival of the best medical blog posts. Conceived by Nicholas Genes of Blogborygmi, Grand Rounds started in 2004 along the lines of the Carnival of the Vanities. Every week one blogger from the medical blogging community signs up to host Grand Rounds on his/her blog and bloggers ranging from doctors to patients send in healthcare-related posts. Participating bloggers are encouraged to target a non-medical audience and "the idea is to introduce the wider world to the growing medical blogosphere -- the doctors, nurses, students, administrators, EMTs, techs, and patients who blog."
Grand Rounds serves as an introduction to the wide variety of healthcare-related posts out there and is also a rich source of knowledge about medicine and healthcare. Topics covered by Grand Rounds has included, among others, new studies in medicine, impact of IT on healthcare, pay-for-performance, online medicine, the pharmaceutical industry, use of drugs, malpractice, and diseases. Some posts are simply "a day in the life" of a healthcare provider while some detail particular doctor-patient interactions seen through the eyes of either party.
Apart from being a rich source of healthcare-related knowledge, Grand Rounds is a display of great creativity and innovation in presenting textual content. It has been a trend for hosts to build their Grand Rounds post around themes. While some have simpy categorized posts by topic, others have posted selections around themes such as music ( where posts had associated musical interludes that one could click on to listen to), comic books (where posts had cartoon icons associated with them), and Leonardo da Vinci (where one was taken on a tour of da Vinci's paintings along with the posts) while still others have used formats like the medical journal article (where posts were arranged into the sections of a medical journal article). It would be interesting to be able to measure the contribution of Grand Rounds to management of medical knowledge in the blogging community.
Grand Rounds serves as an introduction to the wide variety of healthcare-related posts out there and is also a rich source of knowledge about medicine and healthcare. Topics covered by Grand Rounds has included, among others, new studies in medicine, impact of IT on healthcare, pay-for-performance, online medicine, the pharmaceutical industry, use of drugs, malpractice, and diseases. Some posts are simply "a day in the life" of a healthcare provider while some detail particular doctor-patient interactions seen through the eyes of either party.
Apart from being a rich source of healthcare-related knowledge, Grand Rounds is a display of great creativity and innovation in presenting textual content. It has been a trend for hosts to build their Grand Rounds post around themes. While some have simpy categorized posts by topic, others have posted selections around themes such as music ( where posts had associated musical interludes that one could click on to listen to), comic books (where posts had cartoon icons associated with them), and Leonardo da Vinci (where one was taken on a tour of da Vinci's paintings along with the posts) while still others have used formats like the medical journal article (where posts were arranged into the sections of a medical journal article). It would be interesting to be able to measure the contribution of Grand Rounds to management of medical knowledge in the blogging community.
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