Collaborative processes in trauma teams

This project aims to further our understanding of collaboration practices in small, collocated teams that work in dynamic, time-and safety critical environments. We use emergency room as a natural laboratory for investigating information gathering, sharing and archiving, as well as decision making in trauma teams as they conduct trauma resuscitations. We have observed and analyzed six trauma resuscitations and conducted interviews with trauma team members. We found that every worker has different information needs, which are role specific and change rapidly over time. Information gathering and sharing within trauma teams often become inefficient due to the urgency of situation and the lack of information support technologies. Our future efforts will focus on deriving system requirements for collaborative technologies that could support trauma teams more effectively.