• Craig E Kuziemsky, Elizabeth M Borycki, Mary Ellen Purkis, Fraser Black, Michael Boyle, Denise Cloutier-Fisher, Lee Ann Fox, Patricia MacKenzie, Ann Syme, Coby Tschanz, Wendy Wainwright, Helen Wong, and Interprofessional Practices Team.
• Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Kuziemsky@telfer.uottawa.ca
• Bmc Med Inform Decis. 2009 Jan 1;9:43.

BackgroundThere are few studies that examine the processes that interdisciplinary teams engage in and how we can design health information systems (HIS) to support those team processes. This was an exploratory study with two purposes: (1) To develop a framework for interdisciplinary team communication based on structures, processes and outcomes that were identified as having occurred during weekly team meetings. (2) To use the framework to guide 'e-teams' HIS design to support interdisciplinary team meeting communication.MethodsAn ethnographic approach was used to collect data on two interdisciplinary teams. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data according to structures, processes and outcomes.ResultsWe present details for team meta-concepts of structures, processes and outcomes and the concepts and sub concepts within each meta-concept. We also provide an exploratory framework for interdisciplinary team communication and describe how the framework can guide HIS design to support 'e-teams'.ConclusionThe structures, processes and outcomes that describe interdisciplinary teams are complex and often occur in a non-linear fashion. Electronic data support, process facilitation and team video conferencing are three HIS tools that can enhance team function.

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