Learning through Telemedicine Networks: The Case Study of a Wound Care Network

This study considers telemedicine as an IT-enabled integrated health care network that supports collaboration and learning for knowledge creation, acquisition, transfer and sharing among health care parties. It employs a case study methodology to investigate the nature of telemedicine network, technology characteristics, use of technology and quality of inter-practitioner interactions in relation to the occurrence, nature and content of learning processes as well as the health care delivery outcomes within a wound care network in a Midwestern USA state. We conducted 12 open-ended interviews with the medical practitioners and administrators who participate in that wound care network. Based on the findings from this study, we build a grounded theory of the learning processes that occur within telemedicine networks. The grounded theory provides understanding about how effective learning can be fostered in a telemedicine network and how it contributes to the highquality health care and telemedicine effectiveness.