KNOWLEDGE

The DynaMed mission is to provide the MOST USEFUL INFORMATION to health care professionals at the point of care, though we go well beyond providing INFORMATION. I reported last year in revisiting my CALLING I am now seeking to “Raise the standards for clinical KNOWLEDGE”

 “Information is not knowledge.” ― Albert Einstein

“Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” ― T.S. Eliot

Perhaps USEFUL + INFORMATION = KNOWLEDGE, or USEFUL x INFORMATION = KNOWLEDGE. Not sure if the definition is that simple…

KNOWLEDGE has been “an elusive concept which is difficult to define” but often refers to information having been processed, organized or structured in some way, or being applied or put into action. In other words, information plus COORDINATION.

Other definitions of KNOWLEDGE that fit us well are "synthesis of multiple sources of information over time" and "a mix of contextual information, values, experience and rules".

However we define it we are providing KNOWLEDGE and we are managing KNOWLEDGE, and that is the key to our USEFULNESS.

Of course we need to keep in mind some of the most frequently used quotes in my presentations:

• “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” ― Stephen Hawking
• Or Mark Twain’s version: “It aint’ what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”