Clinical governance--watchword or buzzword?

Clinical governance--watchword or buzzword?

In the latest reform of the National Health Service great emphasis has been placed on the achievement and maintenance of quality. Mechanisms for ensuring this are being set up under the general title of "clinical governance". What is the meaning of this term? The metaphor behind the phrase is of navigation through stormy seas, but who guides the helmsman? Clinical ethics committees could have a...

Enterprise 2.0: the “new Knowledge Management” or Just Another Buzzword?

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of Enterprise 2.0 inside a complex business process, seen through the relationship between dynamic capabilities and key knowledge activities. In particular, we investigate the effect of a Wiki in a product management process in a small UK-based software development company. The study draws upon existing theoretical foundations, such as the linkag...

Ontology: buzzword or paradigm shift in GI science?

It is apparent that the term ontology is used recently more and more in the context of GI Science (e.g., Frank 1997; Smith and Varzi 1997; Kemp and Vckovski 1998; Smith and Mark 1998; Bittner and Winter 1999; Rodriguez et al. 1999; Fonseca et al. 2000; Timpf 2001). Is ontology then a buzzword, or a real paradigm shift? What is in it? Can ontology, for example, be the key to interoperability (Vc...

Clinical Governance: Costs and Benefits

Development as a buzzword

Despite its widespread usage, the meaning of the term ‘development’ remains vague, tending to refer to a set of beliefs and assumptions about the nature of social progress rather than to anything more precise. After presenting a brief history of the term, the author argues that not only will development fail to address poverty or to narrow the gap between rich and poor, but in fact it both wide...