Virtually There?

1. VIRTUALLY THERE ? - Intoduction to the case

A new medical project at the University of California San Francisco has been realized through the application of information technology on an organizational structure. This new medical project tries to improve the situation of cancer patients, by building up a medical network for them. Rather than consulting only one doctor, the network of health professionals is able to make a collective diagnosis for the patient and can suggest the most promising treatment. By providing additional information, this system should not only improve the patient's attitudes, but should also better their treatment.

2. Discussion Questions

2.1 Definition of a virtual team how the team members are dispersed

2.1.1 Definition:

Virtual teams are defined as "geographically and/or organizationally dispersed coworkers that are assembled using a combination of telecommunication and information technologies to accomplish an organizational task." Therefore, we have three main characteristic requirements a virtual team has to meet.

As the team members do not have to see each other, the coworkers are dispersed and are working anonymously. The patients provide information which will be used by the doctors to acquire a treatment which fits best to the needs of the patient. On the one hand the information is inserted into a data warehouse to get historical information to possible treatments; on the other hand the patient gets a well-advised treatment that fits best to his/her needs. Thus, information technology is used, fulfilling the second requirement. Last but not least both the patient and the doctors have the same intention. They wish to vanquish the cancer.

2.1.2 How the team members are dispersed:

Although, they have the same aim, the doctors and the patients are dispersed in many ways. For example, there is a gap in knowledge. Though the doctors know how to treat the cancer, the team cannot work without the information provided by the patients. Additionally, they are also separated in geographical location. It becomes possible for doctors to give suggestions to far away patients only as they build up a virtual team. The team members can communicate and work more effectively because of the information system and this increases the quality of treatment suggestions.

However, a team spirit is harder to establish if team members come from different cultures and are only in touch over the internet. Therefore common team values, such as trust, norms, and identification might not be established easily.

2.2 Advantages of the virtual team

Esserman and her colleagues initiate the virtual teams and virtual tools to improve treatments effectively. This is a medical revolution. Applying virtual teams, both patients and doctors gain several advantages. For the patients, first, the diagnoses include more details about the patient's success-rate; statistical information will be provided to suit for each patient to reduce risks and to find the best solution and accurate treatments. Furthermore, in a real-time network, doctors from other hospitals or countries can share and exchange information to suggest a treatment and to make a potential decision together with patients, and also seek the right specialists in each case. According to the patients' values, the virtual teams will create the positive emotional impact to convince the patients in completing successfully. Excepting medicines and cures, the positive emotion is one factor that mainly influences to overcome the problem. Considering doctors' benefit, since some doctors will diagnose only treatment that they are familiar with, the use of decision community software stimulates the progression of medical experience or knowledge among doctors. Also, the virtual teams instantaneously support responses and communications between patients and doctors.

However, the virtual teams can improve organizational design and management control system. There are some skeptical points of applying this concept.

To be efficient a virtual team, the center has to highly invest in an information system and in technology to support, to updating and to maintain such teams. As some technologies used for supporting are new, they can be obstacles for some doctors who deal with this complication and learning new things. Additionally, the applied technologies are carefully chosen for the specific tasks. This may lead to cultural conflicts in communication among doctors who come from different countries in terms of vision, norm, and language.

To solve these weaknesses, Esserman should set some norms and perceptions within teams to enhance collaboration, and encourage team members to benefit from the diversity. In addition, when the system gets complicated, the staff support can help team members by training, updating the system, and reducing the anxiousness of initiation.

2.3. Technological support to meet the team's goals

First of all, technological support is critical for virtual teams. Without it they would not be able to work. Initially, virtual teams have to put a lot of emphasis on the selection of particular technology. Both hardware and software must be selected carefully and in accordance to the team's goals. Furthermore, all team members need proficiency in technical issues. Everyone in the team has to know the required skills.

Applied to the case, IS and visual displays are a profound way for collecting and sharing information. In addition, multimedia technique is needed to offer real-time diagnosis, treatment and success rate data from former cases. This is achieved through a database. A real time, shared-data network presents the possibility of instant