Collaborative Research: Supporting Rapid Transfer of Information and Responsibility

这是一个项目，以了解有关的信息和责任的快速转移在使命关键领域，如医疗重症监护病房的基本问题，并进一步了解嵌入式技术的协作系统的一部分。 使命关键领域通常需要在固有不可预测且对外部事件和威胁敏感的环境中进行连续、高可靠性的操作。这类领域的例子包括救灾、空间任务、空运、军事行动、工业加工厂、金融机构和医院。在这些领域，由于可靠性和问责制的要求，信息传递总是对责任产生影响。工作人员经常在极端的时间压力下开会，需要在短时间内以最大的可靠性和效率传达通常复杂但安全关键的信息。在这种会议期间的互动是“批判性的话语。“信息技术在支持协作工作方面发挥着越来越重要的作用。设计下一代技术嵌入式环境作为协作系统的一部分取决于我们对如何实现信息和责任的快速传递以及如何增强的理解，特别是在关键时刻。本研究将通过实地研究和实地实验，在一个高风险的领域：重症监护病房检查的批评话语的现象。实地研究的重点是与信息和责任的快速转移有关的基本问题，实地实验是为了进一步了解嵌入式技术作为协作系统的一部分。关键话语是通过信息领域进行的，并由信息竞技场塑造。实地研究将描述信息对象的作用，这些信息对象通常是由工人自己通过适应信息技术创建的，是工人创建的联合认知环境的一部分。本阶段的研究将调查和对比三种不同类型的医院查房（步行查房、静坐查房和出院查房），并将研究结果扩展到心脏手术期间的信息传递。民族志的方法，以及分析的视频记录的医院查房将被用来开发一个概念模型，参与者在关键的话语创造和互动，通过信息竞技场，以实现信息传输和协商的信息的共同解释。该模型将描述极端话语的结构和结构的主要形成因素，如准备活动，时间压力和及时获取信息的障碍。它还将描述信息传递的阶段和方式。现场试验将插入一个大型计算机显示器，以增强信息竞技场。分析与展示的互动模式将进一步发展批评性话语的概念模型。信息技术工具（例如，大型计算机化显示器和群体决策支持系统）通常被设计用于高度结构化的任务，具有最小的时间压力和稳定的协作者。理解批评话语将为可能用于使命关键领域的新一代支持工具提供见解。这项研究将加深我们对时间关键和安全关键时期的信息传递和责任转移的理解，并为利用信息技术的力量开发计算机支持的协同工作工具提供新的概念和方向。这将有助于信息和计算技术提高安全性和效率，并有助于对信息工具在联合认知中的作用的普遍理解。

This is a project to understand essential issues related to rapid transfer of information and responsibilities in mission critical domains such as medical intensive care units, and to further our understanding of embedded technology as part of collaborative systems. Mission critical domains usually require continuous, high reliability operations in environments that are inherently unpredictable and sensitive to external events and threats. Examples of such domains include disaster responses, space missions, air transportation, military operations, industrial processing plants, financial institutions and hospitals. In such domains, information transfer always has implications for responsibility due to reliability and accountability requirements. Workers often convene under extreme time pressure with the need to communicate often-complicated, yet safety-critical information in a short period of time with maximum reliability and efficiency. Interactions during such convening are "critical discourses." Information technology plays an increasingly important role in supporting collaborative work. Designing next generation technology-embedded environments as part of collaborative systems depends upon our understanding of how rapid transfer of information and responsibility is achieved and how it might be enhanced, particularly during critical moments. The research will examine the phenomenon of critical discourses through field studies and field experimentation in one type of high stakes domain: intensive care units. The field studies are focused on essential issues related to rapid transfer of information and responsibilities, and the field experimentation is to further our understanding of embedded technology as part of collaborative systems.Critical discourses are carried out through and are shaped by the information arena. Field studies will delineate the roles of information objects, which are often created by workers themselves through adaptation of information technology and are part of joint cognitive environments created by workers. This phase of the research will investigate and contrast three different types of hospital rounds (walking-rounds, sit-down rounds, and discharge rounds), and extend the findings to information transfer during cardiac surgery. Ethnographic methodologies as well as analysis of video records of hospital rounds will be used to develop a conceptual model of how participants in critical discourses create and interact through the information arena to achieve information transfer and to negotiate common interpretation of information. The model will describe structures of extreme discourses and main shaping factors of structures, such as preparatory activities, time pressure, and barriers to timely access to information. It will also depict stages and modalities of information transfer. The field experimentation will interject a large computer display to enhance the information arena. Analysis of interaction patterns with the display will further develop the conceptual model of critical discourses. Information technology tools (e.g., large computerized displays and group decision-support systems) have typically been designed for tasks that are highly structured, with minimal time pressure and stable collaborators. Understanding critical discourses would provide insights for new generations of supporting tools that are likely to be used in mission critical domains. This research will deepen our understanding of information-transfer and responsibility-transfer in time-critical and safety-critical periods and provide new concepts and directions for the development of computer supported cooperative work tools that capitalize on the power of information technology. This will help information and computing technology improve safety and efficiency, and it will contribute to the general understanding of the role of information tools in joint cognition.