The Challenge of Obtaining and Maintaining Expertise

Expertise is a special skill or knowledge. Anadvanced expert also knows the boundaries of thatspecial knowledge. Knowing the boundaries of whatis known and not known about a topic puts the expertin the best position to teach, provide medical care ordesign new questions. Experts continually struggleto maintain their expertise. However, despitesubstantial efforts, the goal to be on top of the full setof information in a topic and know the boundaries ofthat information is elusive.Expertise is highly valued. When faced with anew diagnosis of breast cancer, patients want theperson with the most expertise to treat them.Confidence in the physician is high when that personis the recognized expert and knows the boundaries oftreatment options. Agrant review committee readilyidentifies an expertly written application. Theevidence of expertise of the research topic includeswell-chosen citations and a well-designed plan thatthat steps beyond the edge of what is known. Thestruggle to achieve expertise is not trivial. Themethods used to achieve and maintain expertise arenot discussed enough. We present tools to helpameliorate this struggle as it relates to publishedbiomedical information.