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Articles by David Raths

Machine Learning Makes its Way (Slowly) into e-Discovery

A process called technology-assisted review (TAR) is applying machine learning to the review of electronically stored information, with the potential to save clients time and money by avoiding the review of documents that are not relevant. Most of the largest law firms and many U.S. government agencies including the Department of Justice are deploying TAR or have recognized its value. Yet many attorneys and judges are still unfamiliar with TAR and unsure how to apply it.

KM in healthcare: Distributed networks boost clinical research

Using a common data model, researchers send queries to data sets of collaborating health systems.

Reimagining the clinical trial registry

Even if patients are generally aware of clinical trials, where do they learn more details about them? The commonly accepted place where the information is kept is in government registries such as clinicaltrials.gov. Surveys have shown patients trust them the most. "They start digging there, but often they do not find information that is pertinent or understandable," Moreira says, "and they start losing interest and all the work around awareness goes down the drain."

Which state governments are best at fostering data innovation?

How are our state governments doing at creating data innovation ecosystems?

Creating a knowledge infrastructure for the ‘learning health system’

The idea that the healthcare industry can study the data being created in electronic health records (EHR) to foster ongoing improvement is not a new one, but it is gaining momentum. A "learning health system" is one that commits to the use of data as a byproduct of care for continuous learning.

Knowledge management:
persistence pays off in the manufacturing sector

Enterprise knowledge management initiatives are challenging to initiate and sustain in global manufacturing organizations. Bringing KM principles to the culture of engineers and project management teams spread across the globe can be daunting. Here are two examples of companies that have persevered with enterprise social networking and other innovations as they promote cultural change.

The open patient movement
Patient advocacy groups lead efforts to make health data flow.

In 2014, Steven Keating, a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was diagnosed with a baseball-sized brain tumor. Besides having to go through surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, the experience gave Keating a close-up view of the dysfunctional nature of the U.S. healthcare data ecosystem and led him to become an advocate for open health data.

Life science firms rely on cloud-based learning management systems to address compliance

"If everyone is thinking they are going to get x, y and z but you only deliver on x, they ask why. So you have to communicate clearly on the expectations."

Chief data officers zero in on governance challenges

Federal agencies show progress on records management

There are very specific goals that focus on records management and training requirements. We have been seeing incremental progress on the self-assessments for the last couple of years, but this is the first time we have seen strong movement in a positive direction.

Getting the most out of enterprise social networks

KM leaders share lessons learned and thoughts on ROI

KM infrastructure for the life sciences virtual organization

Relatively new multitenant cloud-based content management platforms are allowing life science startups to avoid large investments in software, hardware and IT staff, while still gaining access to sophisticated systems and the ability to scale up as needed.

Life science KM leaders discuss data search, reuse

Knowledge management is a relatively new discipline in the life sciences industry. Even large companies may not have a well-defined KM structure or team. When KM leaders from pharmaceutical giants, midsize companies and startups gathered at an event in August, a common theme was the duel challenge of making search of internal documents more efficient and getting researchers to see enough value in sharing information that they will change business practices....

State, local governments struggle to keep up with e-discovery requirements

KMWorld asked two experts, Matthew Nelson and Steve Marsh, who have helped public sector agencies with e-discovery implementations to discuss how government attorneys and IT leaders can work together to cope with the increasing volume of electronic data.

KM helps reshape the practice of law

"The focus is social knowledge and finding the right people, then engaging them directly with a new problem set. In general, people who share knowledge rather than hold it do well in this setting."

The key to information governance success: Start small

If you try to "boil the ocean," people freeze up because it is a big cultural change, consultants say.

Is the new open data directive transformative, or will bureaucratic inertia win out?

The policy requires federal agencies to create an enterprise data inventory and a public listing of that inventory.

Accountable care movement depends on clinical analytics

Health reform efforts present a new type of knowledge management challenge.

Knowledge-sharing platforms emerge from life science research collaboration

"Clouds and portals are the new ecosystems and interfaces in this new world."

Legal enterprise search grows sophisticated

The next step is a user interface that more closely resembles how attorneys work....

ECM Earns high scores on campuses

"In higher education, some departmental ECM solutions are so popular that they are adopted universitywide..."

Surveys continue to show weaknesses in federal records management

"Following a presidential memo, the National Archives prepares a new records management directive that requires each agency to designate a senior official to supervise an evaluation of the agency's records management program..."

The ultimate KM challenge: Healthcare informaticists work toward meaningful alerts at the point of care.

In healthcare, the kinds of alerts you create for patient safety deal with issues such as contra-indications about drug interactions, and the level of complexity is staggering....

Focus on KM in higher education:
Learning analytics efforts apply business intelligence to student retention.

The term "learning analytics" seems to have a number of definitions, but it basically involves using predictive analytic tools to improve learning and education...

KM innovators lead change in the legal field
Case management solutions streamline processes,
improve client collaboration.

Some larger law firms have hired chief knowledge officers and provided them with staff and funding that is separate from IT groups...

Research portals bolster medical center compliance efforts

Automation eases grant tracking and submissions to institutional review boards.

Roadmap for KM governance at the federal level
Push continues for expanded federal KM infrastructure

Integrated platforms help financial firms: with governance, risk and compliance efforts:The big picture

Pharmaceutical supply chain plays catch-up

Driven by regulatory compliance, "track and trace" solutions offer greater visibility into the complex distribution network...

Cities add citizen engagement mobile apps to their portfolios:
KM issues include software integration, transparency

In implementing BI, hospital officials face KM challenges

The federal financial incentives being offered to organizations that are "meaningful users" of electronic health records EHRs require an increasingly sophisticated level of data gathering and reporting...

Many federal agencies struggle with records management
Some fall short on basic infrastructure
and training, survey finds.

Records management officials in federal agencies fight an ongoing battle for IT resources and money to hire staff and contractors to identify and schedule records disposition and training. Until recently, it was unclear how much progress agencies were making toward meeting their statutory requirements to manage the records necessary to meet their business needs, ensure government accountability and preserve historically valuable records for future generations...

KM bolsters clinical trials

As more academic medical centers develop sophisticated EHRs and data warehouses, they are seeing the potential to mine those records for possible trial participants...

Mapping the future—State & local governments make progress on enterprise GIS strategies

Hospital prescription: A healthy dose of content management

The Obama administration's huge funding effort to create a nationwide network of interoperable electronic health records (EHRs) has been called the biggest thing that's ever happened in health information technology...

States step up to the electronic challenge

States consolidate on learning management

Many state governments have 40 different learning management systems in place, with individual maintenance contracts on each, and they're not able to share content...

Information systems improve hospital emergency departments

Anyone who has spent time in a hospital emergency department (ED) or even watched television shows about them realizes that they present a daunting knowledge management challenge...

Hospitals play tag—RFID finds a niche in healthcare

Like most healthcare facilities, Washington Hospital Center in the nation's capital used to struggle with asset management: finding the right pieces of equipment when employees needed them. But two and a half years ago, WHC, one of the 25 largest hospitals in the country, sought to address that knowledge management problem by attaching radio frequency identification (RFID) system tags to equipment in order to track them online.

Sharing data in a crisis-State and local groups work on interoperability

Hospital IT departments prescribe portals for physicians

Will making data more readily accessible lead to efficiency gains and clinical improvements?

Some insurers see their data from new perspective

Scientists take a closer look at ELNs

In the pharmaceutical industry, an electronic lab notebook can be more than a receptacle for documents; it can be a platform for knowledge management and collaboration.