Formalizing collaboration in decision-making: a case study in military epidemiological early warning

Motivation –This paper introduces the resolution of a medical complex, uncertain and time-constrainted situation: the early warning outbreak in military deployments. Research approach . We have studied a simulated alarm occurring in the Department of Epidemiology in the Institute of Tropical Medicine of the French Forces, managed by physicians belonging to this department. A task analysis method has been developed to identify and describe components of medical activities, performed by medical teams. This method, called EORCA, is based upon the systematic observation of “event”, describing performance of actions by agents. Findings/Design . The results indicate that the situation management is based upon collaborative activities. Managing an epidemiological early warning is a collective and complex activity. It requires numerous information transmissions between members of the team to identify diseases and to prepare adequate actions in a context of uncertainty events and short interval of time.