Technology enabled knowledge exchange: development of a conceptual framework.

As the need for knowledge exchange grows, so does the need to find new ways for researchers, decision makers, and educators to communicate and collaborate with each other on how to improve drug prescribing and use. In this paper, we introduce a conceptual framework for evaluating knowledge exchange activities within drug policy groups. The framework is grounded in the information and communication technologies (ICT) and knowledge exchange literature and is composed of various inputs, processes, and outputs. Inputs into the framework are research task, communication medium (face-to-face, teleconferencing, and web-conferencing), group characteristics (size, experience, goals, and roles), and context (description of linkage and exchange within the policy domain and group type). The inputs will affect how the social interaction process, knowledge brokering process, and information exchange process between drug policy groups (decision-makers, researchers, and educators) develop as part of the linkage and exchange knowledge exchange process. The inputs and how they shape the linkage and exchange knowledge exchange process will lead to different levels of engagement outputs and linkage and exchange outputs. Results of a refined conceptual framework based on a 2-year case study are also provided in the model where new inputs and processes are introduced.