Using Communities Of Practice To Develop Access To Traditional Thai Medicine

This research aimed to study the creation of knowledge management in traditional Thai medicine through the use of Communities of Practice (CoP). CoP is an approach for administering, exchanging, developing and creating databases and guidelines for knowledge management. The sample used in this research was comprised of 1,636 volunteer patients in the traditional Thai medicine health centers in Khon Kaen Province, Thailand. CoP allows patients and members of the community to be healthy solely by relying on Traditional Thai medicine. The patients, physicians, nurses and public health officials all belong to a group that exchanges medical information to help patients cope with sickness. Communities of Practice (CoP), which consist of leaders, facilitators, knowledge bankers and members, have three development directions. The first direction, represented by Helping Communities, involves the discussion of daily problems. From these discussions come Best Practice Communities, which involve the auditing and publicizing of guidelines to find the best solution to medical problems. The second direction is represented Knowledge-Stewarding Communities, which aim to improve community members’ knowledge. The third direction is represented by Innovation Communities, which develop concepts across CoP in order to synthesize the thoughts of members with different points of view into a transfer-knowledge network