Distributed Cognition for Teamwork (DiCoT) is a method that we use to help us understand how a 'system' works e.g. like a control room, a lecture theatre, a call centre, or in this case a medical equipment library. There is often a lot going in these contexts which makes it challenging to understand when you're not an expert. This method helps us focus on five specific areas: 1) the way tasks are done, 2) the way the room is laid out, 3) the artefacts that are used in the system, 4) the way people are organised, and 5) the way the system has developed and evolved over time.
The 'Distributed Cognition' part refers to theory that says a lot of our thinking is shaped by how the environment is organised, and that we manipulate the environment to improve our thinking. For example, everyday we use PostIt notes, shopping lists, diaries, alerts and reminders to help us perform - we might even need to write numbers down on a piece of paper to perform a calculation if it's too complex to do in our head.
The 'Teamwork' part refers to the fact that there are normally multiple people in a system that work together to perform broader goals. For example, in a study we did in the London Ambulance Service control room you have many call takers that filter information, which passes on to one of the sector desks where an allocator makes a decision about what ambulance will attend what incident, then a radio operator will contact the ambulance to communicate details of the incident.
DiCoT helps us see how information changes and moves around these different contexts, between people, artefacts and bits of technology. We essentially want to understand the system better and suggest improvements.
