One defining characteristic of health care is the rate at which new knowledge is created and disseminated. Funded basic and clinical research advances understanding of diseases and treatments at a frantic pace. Additionally, the process of health care delivery is, by its very nature, one of learning. Routine care creates new and increasingly specific knowledge about how to solve patients’ health problems. Increasing specificity allows codification and hence easy dissemination of knowledge pertaining to health care, embodied either in highly detailed care management protocols and decision rules or hard wired into medical technologies. Both of these mechanisms facilitate the transfer of decision rights to the broad and diverse group of participants in the care process, including ultimately patients themselves. The phenomenon of diffusion of knowledge in health care allows the continual redesign of models of health care delivery.
TOM
32 pages
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