Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
7.2
Any Attempt to Control the Technology Leads to Failure
Evidence also suggested that the freedom of doctors to engage with telemedicine in
their own way contributed to the success of the centre. Whilst the workers at the
centre provided training and seminars, doctors learned how to use the technology
but then used it according to the environment they were in. Doctors spoke of
colleagues who used their mobile phones to consult with their peers, some using
technology from the centre, 'Saw colleague take ultra sound in phone and send to
colleague - was surprised - but people are using these things' (
female doctor
). The
director also used his mobile phone to consult with a doctor in neighbouring country
Albania, 'smart phones and camera phones developing so fast' (
male doctor and
director
). The female doctor also discussed a case where she consulted with a
dermatologist in Turkey about a patient, and how she could use the link she had
built with them to work around the cost of using the 'offi cial' equipment, 'Cost to
use Vital net but email no costs' (
female doctor
). The doctor could use the knowledge
she had learned working with telemedicine but was able to choose how she utilised
the technology and make it work for her situation.
7.3
Different Cultures Have Different Codes, Norms
and Rituals for Hospitality, the Technology Must
Accept Them
The telemedicine centre was conceived at a time of great upheaval and confl ict in
Kosovo. Following 10 years of segregation and a confl ict ended by a US-led North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) bombing campaign, there was a sense of free-
dom and the beginnings of independence. This is refl ected in the attitudes of doctors
to the technology. One doctor who embraced the new technology described the
introduction of the Internet through the telemedicine centre in terms of freedom and
being able to consult with doctors worldwide, 'Internet, the idea you are free. Then
international symposium - good for you - you can consult doctors in another part
of the world' (
female doctor
).
The female doctor stressed the importance of hope and the role of technology in
providing it, 'Telemed - provides link which gives knowledge which gives hope'
.
She also highlighted the importance of not giving up and the need for 'Constant
hope and motivation - the future is in technologies, no reason to go back or to be
disappointed' (
female doctor
). The lack of access to medical education prior to and
during the confl ict, and the culture this created, can be seen in the different reactions
to the telemedicine centre. For some doctors the technology represented knowledge
and hope, and it was welcomed as such. For other doctors it was a something to
tolerate and partially use, but not fully embrace. The doctors who reacted to the
technology in this way were described as proud. Their choice of interaction with the
centre and the technology within it was to not interact, 'very proud professors do not
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