Closing the knowledge gap with e-learning

Are high costs and potential downtime preventing your staff from receiving much-needed training? E-learning offers more than a solution to these concerns: it's a better way to learn. In this article, find out how e-learning works and how to implement an e-learning program in your organization.     

The missing link: bridging the patient-provider health information gap

Widespread adoption of information technology is now regarded as a pathway to improving health care and achieving the Institute of Medicine's highly regarded six aims for redesigning care. Achieving these aims requires fresh approaches to health system design, including continuous healing relationships between physicians and patients and provision of tools to help patients be more active participants in their own care. Personal health records (PHRs) might allow patients and providers to develop new ways of collaborating and provide the basis for broader transformation of the health care system. Federal policies can be key catalysts in accelerating PHR development and adoption.     

Bridging the gap between knowledge and action for health: Case studies

Biomedical discoveries could improve people's health only if they are suited to the diverse political and social contexts, health systems and population groups. Knowledge generated through evidence-informed health policy and practice when applied to the local situation enhances the quality and efficiency of health care. This article describes four case studies on bridging the gap between knowledge and action for health in a tertiary care hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. Gaps between knowledge and action for health are classified into "know-do" and "do-know" gaps with knowledge implementation and knowledge generation being the key measures for bridging the gap.     

Physician-induced demand: an empirical analysis of the consumer information gap

The hypothesis of physician-induced demand is examined empirically in a model where variation in consumer information affects health-care utilization. A theoretical framework is posited under which demand-inducing physicians will provide more services, ceteris paribus, to their medically uninformed patients. Using data from the CHAS-NORC National Survey of Access to Medical uninformed patients. Using data from the CHAS-NORC National Survey of Access to Medical Care 1975-1976, physician office visit demand equations are estimated. The key finding is that medical professionals and their families are as likely, if not more likely, to visit physicians as other people, controlling for sociodemographic factors, price factors, access to care factors and perceived health status.     

National environmental public health tracking program: bridging the information gap

In January 2001 the Pew Environmental Health Commission called for the creation of a coordinated public health system to prevent disease in the United States by tracking and combating environmental health threats. In response, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initiated the Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT) Program to integrate three distinct components of hazard monitoring and exposure and health effects surveillance into a cohesive tracking network. Uniform and acceptable data standards, easily understood case definitions, and improved communication between health and environmental agencies are just a few of the challenges that must be addressed for this network to be effective. The nascent EPHT program is attempting to respond to these challenges by drawing on a wide range of expertise from federal agencies, state health and environmental agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and the program's academic Centers of Excellence. In this mini-monograph, we present innovative strategies and methods that are being applied to the broad scope of important and complex environmental public health problems by developing EPHT programs. The data resulting from this program can be used to identify areas and populations most likely to be affected by environmental contamination and to provide important information on the health and environmental status of communities. EPHT will develop valuable data on possible associations between the environment and the risk of noninfectious health effects. These data can be used to reduce the burden of adverse health effects on the American public.