Assimilating information and offering a medical opinion in remote and co-located meetings

Discussion on patient data, among hospital staff, plays an increasingly important role in inter-specialist communication. Effectiveness of a discussion depends, among other factors, on how well its participants perceive, assimilate and interpret information exchanged during a discussion. This paper reports a field study conducted to assess information assimilation among medical observer participants during PCDs in a hospital. Medically trained observer participants undertook a questionnaire at multi-disciplinary medical team meetings (MDTMs) in teleconference and colocated settings. Results show that participants are more likely to offer opinions in teleconference while their expectations on the long-term effects of treatment are more realistic in co-located PCDs than in teleconference PCDs. Surprisingly, the presentation of clinical findings, radiology and pathology is perceived to be clearer in teleconference, and respondents believe that they follow the discussion, know the patient management plan and understand the basis for decisions, better in teleconference than in colocated PCDs. While a higher educational value is attributed to teleconference PCDs, evidence suggests a trend to have more errors in teleconference, less critical evaluation and no expression of disagreement with patient management decisions made in teleconference.