TY - GEN
T1 - The "active" gatekeeper in collaborative information seeking activities
AU - Spence, Patricia Ruma
AU - Reddy, Madhu C.
PY - 2007/12/1
Y1 - 2007/12/1
N2 - Multidisciplinary team members often must work together to find needed information. To identify when team members collaborate, why they collaborate, and how they collaborate during information seeking activities, we conducted a field study of a multidisciplinary patient care team. We found that the unit secretary, a non-clinical team member, had characteristics of various types of gatekeepers identified in previous studies. However, unlike those gatekeepers, the unit secretary also played a particularly active role during information seeking activities. Most medical information systems design focus on supporting collaboration amongst clinical staff. Our study highlights the importance of also supporting non-clinical team members.
AB - Multidisciplinary team members often must work together to find needed information. To identify when team members collaborate, why they collaborate, and how they collaborate during information seeking activities, we conducted a field study of a multidisciplinary patient care team. We found that the unit secretary, a non-clinical team member, had characteristics of various types of gatekeepers identified in previous studies. However, unlike those gatekeepers, the unit secretary also played a particularly active role during information seeking activities. Most medical information systems design focus on supporting collaboration amongst clinical staff. Our study highlights the importance of also supporting non-clinical team members.
KW - Collaborative Information Seeking
KW - Gatekeeper
KW - Group Work
KW - Healthcare
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77950510311&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=77950510311&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/1316624.1316666
DO - 10.1145/1316624.1316666
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:77950510311
SN - 9781595938459
T3 - GROUP'07 - Proceedings of the 2007 International ACM Conference on Supporting Group Work
SP - 277
EP - 280
BT - GROUP'07 - Proceedings of the 2007 International ACM Conference on Supporting Group Work
T2 - 2007 International ACM Conference on Supporting Group Work, GROUP'07
Y2 - 4 November 2007 through 7 November 2007
ER -