Kho M C; Parker S K; Baynam G

In an increasingly digitalized world collaboration of interdisciplinary teams becomes more prevalent and desirable for knowledge sharing of experts from different disciplines to achieve common goals. To meet complex needs of children with rare diseases and their families the Rare Care Centre, Perth Children's Hospital, Western Australia build up an interdisciplinary collaborative team of experts in healthcare, education and financial support services. To improve knowledge sharing, communication and coordination within the team the IT specialist of the Rare Care team is designing and implementing an AI technology that automates patient intake, collection of patient information and creation of comprehensive patient summaries. This case study aims at understanding the role of this technology development and design in the implementation process in this interdisciplinary collaborative team at the Rare Care Centre. To understand existing team structures and current work design we conducted observations of weekly team meetings and semi-structured Interviews (N=18) with all team members. Further, we observed and interviewed the team's IT specialist, to understand the development, design and implementation of digital technologies at the Rare Care Centre. Effects of the technology implementation on work design, more specifically on the relational coordination and performance of the team will be investigated through semi-structured interviews (N~20) during and after implementation of the technology. Interviews are coded and analysed using thematic analysis in NVivo.
We expect positive effects of the technology on critical aspects of relational coordination of the interdisciplinary team at the Rare Care Centre such as enhanced communication including frequency and timeliness of communication and problem-solving as well as relationships including shared goals, shared knowledge and mutual respect. Enhanced relational coordination through technology is expected to improve overall effectiveness and team performance.

At the end of this presentation, attendees will have a more nuanced understanding of the essential components of development and design of technology for successful implementation in an interdisciplinary work team. The learnings from this case study will inform future research as well as practice on how to implement digital technologies at work and encourages both to apply this knowledge and engage in multidisciplinary collaboration with other research and practice fields.
Attendees are welcome to ask any questions and engage in a conversation with the presenter after the presentation.