Information and knowledge management: an exploratory research with public health’s managers in the city of Campinas/SP/Brazil

Information and Knowledge Management were conceived with the purpose of meeting the needs of competitive organizations. These organizations, in order to sustain competitiveness, must use strategic information and knowledge which has been treated with adequate techniques of conception, organization, dissemination and use. However, the use of information and knowledge isn’t restricted to competitive organizations; it is also extended to public organizations which aim to offer quality products and services in benefit of specific segments of the population. In this context, the objectives of this exploratory research done with a sample of public health’s managers in the city of Campinas/SP were: the understanding, analysis, mapping and evaluation of the decision making process and eventually to propose improvements in the decision making process with specific support from Information and Knowledge Management. Among the results were: identification of information needed at decision making instances and decision making stages; identification of moments that demand entrance and exit of information and knowledge in decision making process; evaluation of level of the resulting quality by using information and knowledge; and development of a decision making proposal supported by Information and Knowledge Management. This research confirmed the importance of the information and knowledge resources to decision making process. Though these resources are always requested by public health’s managers, failure techniques of disponibilization and access its. Thus, the Information Management and Knowledge Management are real possible alternatives of solutions to pointed deficiencies in the municipal public health sector.