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Operations & systems
Paramedics on digital decision support
Challenges and opportunities in using digital health technologies for decision-making in prehospital non-emergency situations in Norway: a qualitative study
BMC Emergency Medicine · 2026-10-23 · Added 24 October 2026
Qualitative interview study of 12 Norwegian paramedics on digital health tools for prehospital non-emergency decision-making — four themes emerged around call assessment and resource allocation, shared situational awareness, interprofessional communication, and the challenges of patchy implementation.
- Study type
- Qualitative
- Design
- Exploratory qualitative interview study (reflexive thematic analysis)
- Participants
- 12 paramedics interviewed
- Main finding
- Four themes: digital support for call assessment and ambulance resource allocation, digital patient information for shared situational awareness, digital communication for interprofessional consultation, and implementation challenges despite established prehospital infrastructure
- Caveat
- Single-country qualitative study with purposive and snowball sampling of 12 paramedics
- Bottom line
- Context only
Why it matters in Australia (Medium relevance). A Nordic paramedic service rated on its merits, and the low-acuity decision-making burden it describes is the same one Australian crews carry.
Learning goal
Understand how digital decision support tools shape non-emergency call assessment and interprofessional communication in paramedic practice.
More
- Topic: Operations & systems
- Daily scan: 24 October 2026
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