Designing for Better Pre-hospital Communication: Participatory Design of a Telemedicine Application for Emergency Departments.

Pre-hospital communication, which usually refers to the communication process between pre-hospital and hospital providers, is crucial for the effective management of critically injured or ill patients. Despite its importance, persistent challenges such as miscommunication have been significant barriers. Telemedicine systems have been proposed to overcome these challenges, yet existing research primarily focuses on using off-the-shelf systems to evaluate their feasibility and effectiveness of implementation without investigating users' needs and perceptions. To bridge this research gap, our study employed a user-centered design approach to co-create an integrated telemedicine system with emergency care providers to ensure that the system meets the specific needs of care providers and aligns with existing clinical workflows. We present the system design process, the features desired by users to address challenges in pre-hospital communication, and the socio-technical considerations for implementing telemedicine in the dynamic emergency care setting. We conclude the paper by discussing the design implications.