Becoming business critical: Knowledge for Healthcare

Abstract

Significant progress has been made in implementing Knowledge for Healthcare. This editorial reports the central contribution of effective partnerships and the involvement of librarians and knowledge specialists in this work. There are compelling business priorities. Key elements of work-streams on demonstrating impact, workforce development and streamlining are indicated, along with areas of growing importance - knowledge management, embedded roles and health information for the public and patients. Knowledge, and the skills to help people to use it, are business critical.

Knowledge Management in healthcare libraries: the current picture

“…Our current scope for knowledge management then, can be seen as interlinked with, or a natural extension of, all other aspects of health librarianship, and indeed in many ways is an extension of core business, and key to making knowledge staff business critical (Lacey Bryant). Increasingly, it is extending the role of the library in enabling easy access to the evidence base, to taking a more active role in its uptake into practice – through more obvious provision of evidence summaries, and more facilitation of knowledge seeking and sharing.…”

Transforming your service: the right evidence at the right time and place

“…We hope that this virtual issue gives a flavour of KFH, the work that has been undertaken so far, and compliments the presentations and discussions at HLG 2016. For further details on implementing KFH, see the recent HILJ editorial by Bryant et al ., and to keep up‐to‐date with developments, be sure to regularly visit the Knowledge for Healthcare blog: http://kfh.libraryservices.nhs.uk/.…”