Maintaining redundancy in the coordination of medical emergencies

This paper reports from a study of Norwegian medical emergency call (AMK) centres, in which advanced radio and telephone communication technologies are handled by a team of nurses and ambulance personnel to coordinate medical emergency resources (ambulances, doctors, helicopters, and so on). The AMK centres have made use of a range of technologies since they were established 15-20 years ago. During the last 5 years, several of the centres have implemented an information system, AMIS to integrate several functions that before were handled by using separate specialised systems. By observation in seven medical emergency call centres and a survey covering 38 of 43 such centres in Norway in the period 1996-2002, this study focuses on collaboration and use of communication technologies in a teamwork setting. It is found that important aspects of the AMK centre teamwork include redundancy of communication, competence and technologies, as well as a well-developed overall attention from the op...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: CSCW
• Authors: Aksel Tjora
• Keywords: Amk Centre, CSCW 2004, Information Systems, Medical Emergency, Social Sciences