Mobilising Computable Biomedical Knowledge (MCBK)
Data gets all the headlines, but it is knowledge that actually makes a difference. Knowledge is what we learn and apply to achieve our goals.
In health and care, knowledge is the basis of education, research, clinical decision-making and public health policy. Knowledge is embedded in textbooks, evidence-based practice guidelines and decision support software.
It is no longer sufficient to represent health-related knowledge solely in human-readable forms, such as words and images disseminated in books and journal articles. The rapid rate of scientific discovery, the growth of health informatics, and the increasing importance of models and guidelines require health knowledge that is represented in computable forms.
Computable knowledge unleashes the potential of information technology to generate and deliver relevant health advice to individuals and organizations with great speed on a worldwide scale.
What is MCBK?
Mobilising Computable Biomedical Knowledge (MCBK) is a global movement, founded in 2018 at the University of Michigan, USA. MCBK has a Manifesto and its official journal is Learning Health Systems.
The aim of MCBK is to activate an international community from academia, the sciences, industry and government agencies working together to ensure that computable biomedical knowledge is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.
You can watch the recorded talks from the 2022 MCBK Global conference here.
What is MCBK-UK?
In 2019, BCS Health & Care and the Faculty of Clinical Informatics held an inaugural conference which involved NICE, HL7 UK, NHS Digital, NHS England, NHS Scotland, academics and representatives of industry and standards-development organisations. Watch the videos from this conference, or read reports based on conference talks. This event led to the formation of a BCS-FCI joint working group that functions as the steering group of MCBK-UK.
Members of the steering group have led projects with Health Data Research UK, NHS Scotland and NICE to advise on optimal use of computable knowledge. The steering group is co-chaired by Dr Philip Scott (for BCS) and Prof Jeremy Wyatt (for FCI).
