The Effect of Experience Background on Remote Diagnosis

Telecommunication systems have enabled experts to offer consultation to spatially distanced locations. To understand this mode of distributed decision making, a series of experiments were conducted to contrast how experts with different experience background (nurses, surgeons, and anesthesiologists) extract information from audio-video sources. These experiments were designed to simulate remote diagnosis tasks in which experts provide consultation through video linkage. Although all were experienced with the domain and given the same stimulus materials, these three groups of experts differed in their abilities to detect critical cues and offer diagnostic suggestions. It appears that experts were bound by their own regular roles in a resuscitation team. The findings suggest that to provide consultation of dynamic, multidisciplinary team oriented activities, an assembly of teleconsultants and/or special training is needed to provide effective consultation.