Telemedical work and cooperation

Abstract

In telemedicine, cooperation occurs via telecommunication. This represents a new situation for medical cooperation. Whether such cooperation works poorly or well will be important with an increasing volume of telemedicine. When personnel are involved in external cooperation, as in telemedicine, the question of cooperation within one's own organization also arises. To investigate these matters, qualitative interviews were performed with 30 persons working in teledermatology, telepsychiatry, a telepathology frozen-section service and tele-otolaryngology. The results showed that cooperating by telecommunication mainly worked well. The cooperation may be influenced by factors such as personality, knowing each other personally, preparation and experience. Telemedical teamwork may be improved by factors like experience and education. Working with telemedicine did not reduce the personnel's cooperation within their own organizations, but rather improved it, although this effect was slight and most commonly involved improved knowledge of others. In general, the findings concerning cooperation and telemedicine were positive.