The influence of personal knowledge management on individual decision making in healthcare medical treatment

Personal knowledge management (PKM) is a method to enhance an individual’s learning ability and critical thinking skills allowing individuals to make more effective decisions. Individuals, who must make healthcare decisions in an increasingly information-rich environment, may benefit from PKM. Little is known about how PKM can optimize individual healthcare decision making. With this in mind, this study will investigate how PKM can help individuals better manage complex healthcare issues through well-informed decisions when facing healthcare medical treatment. Two research methodologies, grounded theory and action learning are adopted for this study. A PKM-based decision making training program format has been proposed based on action learning. Data collection and analysis is based on grounded theory approaches. This study is expected to provide new insights for PKM implementation to help individuals manage information overload and improve their information literacy skills as well as knowledge management capabilities when confronting health-related decisions.