New Knowledge Transfer Roles

Information behavior in the context of improving patient safety
Anu MacIntosh-Murray , Chun Wei Choo

Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
Volume 56, Issue 12 , Pages 1332 - 1345
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1085017.1085025

I suggest that you read this interesting article. I have been watching the work of authors MacIntosh-Murray and Choo for some time. They have written on risk and information behaviors in the past and their thoughts run parallel to some of mine in regard to the role reliable information and knowledge transfer plays in creating safety and cultures that support safety. This article outlines several roles --boundary spanners is one I particularly like - that could be addressed by information professionals with the right training. Although they situate these roles on the clinical or sharp end of knowledge transfer , I see that librarians may well play these roles on the blunt end as well, helping to bridge gaps between hospital leaders and the clinicians.