Informatics and Knowledge Management Directorate

Executive Manager: Dr Nolwazi Mbananga
E-mail: nolwazi.mbananga@mrc.ac.za

Informatics and knowledge management activities across the MRC are facilitated and spearheaded in many ways by the Informatics and Knowledge Management (IKM) Directorate. This Directorate comprises the of: Health Informatics Research and Development; Information Technology Services; Information Services; Web & Media Technologies; Management Information & Knowledge Systems; and Biomedical Informatics Research Division.

The IKM Directorate is responsible for ensuring that appropriate information and knowledge management systems are in place to allow optimal functioning of research and interventions undertaken, but also to ensure the decoding and transfer of such outputs for practical decision making by stakeholders, to allow further innovation and practical improvements in the health sector. The MRC realises that the needs of users extend beyond access to information. Its knowledge management planning therefore also focuses on: organisational learning; intellectual capital; knowledge development, conversion, sharing and application; collaboration; innovation; and, adaptive change. In its planning in this regard the MRC recognises that health research information and knowledge flow happens across institutions and countries, and follows the demands of co-operation, mostly in a virtual organisational mode.It is also influenced by the existence of focused areas of health problems and new or emerging technologies, with the latter resulting in a concentration of information and knowledge in particular content-specific areas - with special databases, data marts and discussion groups - supporting the notion of clusters of innovation.

The IKM Directorate's management team is keen to assist end users within the MRC with all their informatics and knowledge management needs. This team is fortunate to be able to call on a highly skilled and diverse staff complement that reflects the MRC's equity policy.

The IKM Directorate has provided various innovations in its own right. One of these is the national health knowledge network, SA HealthInfo, which received funding from the South African Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Innovation Fund. This unique portal for health research information dissemination and a platform for interaction among researchers can be accessed at http://www.sahealthinfo.org. The IKM Directorate links with various international initiatives and its staff members continue to make inputs in the field of health informatics and knowledge management on various scientific forums. The Directorate is also the locus of the MRC's role as an International Medlars Centre and as such inter alia assists in document delivery to researchers well beyond South Africa's borders.