Participation in interdisciplinary meetings on genetic diagnostics (NGS)

Diagnostics using next generation sequencing (NGS) requires high-quality interdisciplinary collaboration. In order to gain insight into this crucial collaborative process, we made video recordings of a new multidisciplinary team at work in the clinical genetics department of the University Medical Centre Groningen. Conversation Analysis was used to investigate the ways in which the team members deal with the disciplinary boundaries between them. We found that the team established different 'participation frames' in which to discuss recurring topics. Patients were discussed only by the medical doctors, whereas results of genetic tests were discussed by doctors, molecular biologists and genetic laboratory technicians. Information technology (IT) aspects were discussed by biologists, genetics analysts and bio-informaticians, but not doctors. We then interviewed team members who said they believed that the division of labour embodied in these participation frames contributes to achieving their team's goals.