Traditional Practice vs. New Tools and Routines in Stroke Treatment

Future Internet

Line Lundvoll Nilsen¹ 

[1] University Hospital of North Norway, Norwegian Centre for Integrated Care and Telemedicine, Tromsø 35, 9038, Norway;

关键词: collaboration;    medical discussions;    knowledge-sharing;    videoconference;    activity theory;    stroke;   

DOI  :  10.3390/fi4030688

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

In Norway, it is a national goal to provide more patients with thrombolytic treatment. A referring hospital and a specialist hospital have implemented videoconferencing (VC) equipment to share knowledge and discuss stroke patients, regarding thrombolytic treatment. VC has only been used four times within the 19 months that the service has been available. The objective in this article is to increase the understanding of the contradiction between the need for knowledge-sharing through VC technology, as well as the reasons for low frequency of use when discussing stroke patients. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 professionals. The results illustrate how the technology per se is not the reason for the low frequency use. Health care is shaped by behavior, traditional rules, standards and division of labor. By using cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) as a framework, we illustrate the importance of understanding the historic way of performing an activity to be able to expand the treatment activity in the future.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.