Collaborative Activities in Virtual Settings: Case Studies of Telemedicine

This research examines virtual collaborative activities in the context of telemedicine. Collaborative activities consist of knowledge creation, discovery, and transfer. The findings indicate that teleconsultation and distance learning projects that involve primarily the transfer of explicit knowledge are not perceived as having a positive impact on remote site health care delivery, while those projects engaging in the creation and/or discovery of tacit knowledge are perceived as having a positive impact. These findings provide a useful means of differentiating between those telemedicine projects that impact remote site health care delivery in a positive manner and those that don't.