A finger on the pulse: temporal rhythms and information seeking in medical work

Most cooperative work takes place in information-rich environments. However, studies of "information work" tend to focus on the decontextualized access and retrieval problems faced by individual information seekers. Our work is directed towards understanding how information management is seamlessly integrated into the course of everyday activities. Drawing on an ethnographic study of medical work, we explore the relationship between information and temporal coordination and discuss the role of temporal patterns or "rhythms" in providing individuals with the means to coordinate information and work.

[1]  Brenda Dervin,et al.  On studying information seeking methodologically: the implications of connecting metatheory to method , 1999, Inf. Process. Manag..

[2]  Victoria Bellotti,et al.  E-mail as habitat: an exploration of embedded personal information management , 2001, INTR.

[3]  Andreas Paepcke,et al.  Information needs in technical work settings and their implications for the design of computer tools , 1996, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).

[4]  E. Zerubavel.  The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week , 1986 .

[5]  Mark S. Ackerman,et al.  Just talk to me: a field study of expertise location , 1998, CSCW '98.

[6]  Diane H. Sonnenwald,et al.  Information behavior in dynamic group work contexts: interwoven situational awareness, dense social networks and contested collaboration in command and control , 2000, Inf. Process. Manag..

[7]  T. Allen.  Managing the flow of technology , 1977 .

[8]  T. D. Wilson,et al.  Information behaviour: an interdisciplinary perspective , 1997, Inf. Process. Manag..

[9]  Raymond G. Duncan,et al.  An Enterprise Web Viewing System for Clinical and Administrative Data , 2002, AMIA.

[10]  Susan T. Dumais,et al.  Collaborative information retrieval (CIR) , 2000, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[11]  Susan T. Dumais,et al.  Collaborative information retrieval (CIR). The New Review of Information Behaviour Research: Studies of Information Seeking in Context, . , 2000 .

[12]  David M. Nichols,et al.  Browsing is a collaborative process , 1997, Inf. Process. Manag..

[13]  M. Bates.  The invisible substrate of information science , 1999 .

[14]  Madhu C. Reddy,et al.  Coordinating heterogeneous work: Information and representation in medical care , 2001, ECSCW.

[15]  Mats Lind,et al.  The art of the obvious , 1992, CHI.

[16]  Colin F. Mackenzie,et al.  Cognitive properties of a whiteboard: A case study in a trauma centre , 2001, ECSCW.

[17]  E. Zerubavel.  Hidden Rhythms: Schedules and Calendars in Social Life , 1981 .

[18]  David M. Nichols,et al.  Designing interfaces to support collaboration in information retrieval , 1998, Interact. Comput..

[19]  Lois M. L. Delcambre,et al.  Bundles in the Wild: Managing Information to Solve Problems and Maintain Situation Awareness , 2000, Libr. Trends.

[20]  Jakob E. Bardram,et al.  Temporal Coordination –On Time and Coordination of CollaborativeActivities at a Surgical Department , 2000, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).

[21]  Kristina Höök,et al.  Social Navigation of Information Space , 1999, Computer Supported Cooperative Work.

[22]  Eviatar Zerubavel,et al.  Patterns of Time in Hospital Life: A Sociological Perspective. , 1980 .

[23]  Aaron V. Cicourel,et al.  The integration of distributed knowledge in collaborative medical diagnosis , 1990 .

[24]  Gillian Symon,et al.  The coordination of work activities: Cooperation and conflict in a hospital context , 1996, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).

[25]  Raya Fidel,et al.  Collaborative Information Retrieval. , 1999 .

[26]  Adelheit Stein,et al.  Structuring collaborative information-seeking dialogues , 1995, Knowl. Based Syst..

[27]  Alan J. Munro,et al.  Personal and Social Navigation of Information Space , 1999 .

[28]  B. Buchanan,et al.  Expanding the concept of medical information: an observational study of physicians' information needs. , 1992, Computers and biomedical research, an international journal.

[29]  Peter Johnson-Lenz,et al.  Post-Mechanistic Groupware Primitives: Rhythms, Boundaries and Containers , 1991, Int. J. Man Mach. Stud..

[30]  James D. Hollan,et al.  Edit wear and read wear , 1992, CHI.

[31]  Jakob E. Bardram,et al.  “I love the system—I just don't use it!” , 1997, GROUP.

[32]  Wendy A. Kellogg,et al.  "I'd be overwhelmed, but it's just one more thing to do": availability and interruption in research management , 2002, CHI.

[33]  A. Strauss.  Social Organization of Medical Work , 1985 .

[34]  Paul N. Gorman,et al.  Information needs of physicians , 1995 .

[35]  Ina Wagner,et al.  Time-management: a case for CSCW , 1992, CSCW '92.