Notes program

Supporting Inter-Agency Collaboration in Emergency Management: Recurring Challenges Relevant for CSCW

Munkvold, Bjørn E.

Abstract
Emergency management requires effective collaboration between different agencies. This work implies several challenges due to a heterogeneous mix of actors with different procedures, practices, and support tools. Despite being focused in various research streams, emergency responders still report challenges with sharing information and establishing shared situational awareness in responding to complex events. The paper presents results from a large-scale digital tabletop exercise that illustrate recurring challenges related to support for collaborative procedures, a communication network structure combining several media, use of geocollaborative tools, and configuration of collaborative environments in co-located operations centers. CSCW researchers are well positioned to further address these challenges and thus make an impact in a domain of high societal importance.


Scaling Digital Remote Care Technology: Installed Base Cultivation

Meum, Torbjørg T.

Abstract
Digital remote care is considered a way to address the rising costs of healthcare by moving the treatment of patients to the homes, supporting a shift from episodic to continuous care, and promoting preventive care. However, it is still a challenge for user organizations (e.g., hospitals and health centers) to scale digital remote care to large patients’ populations beyond small-scale pilot projects. Research has shown that the implementation and deployment of digital remote care requires both the reorganization of resources, responsibility, competences in the organization and the development of the existing infrastructures. These processes are therefore challenging, and the existing organizational, infrastructural, and digital capabilities of a user organization seem to play a critical role. Thus, in this paper we address the research question of what is the role of the installed base in the scaling of remote care? We have addressed this question by conducting a case study in primary care setting in Norway. This study contributes to increased insight into how existing socio-technological arrangements affect the configuration, adoption and scaling of digital remote care for people with chronic illness.