No continuing education / Category A credit assigned to this presentation.
Human factors science studies human abilities, limitations and characteristics and applies this knowledge to the development of systems, processes and equipment to produce safe, comfortable and effective interactions. It includes the practical recognition that variable factors like cognitive psychology, human performance dynamics, visual perception, ergonomic and human-computer interface design parameters interact together and impact on human behaviour in any workplace. Incumbent on this awareness is the recognition that technology is evolving faster than our ability to predict how we as humans will interact with it. Yet understanding these interactive factors is our change management challenge when developing safer and more effective human work environments. Although human factors engineering has been widely adopted in the industrial setting, it is seldom applied to the design of equipment, software and processes involved in the delivery of radiation therapy. This presentation will include examples of error prone processes at The Ottawa Hospital identified by our incident learning system and for which the root cause involved physical, cognitive and/or organizational human factors shortcomings. We will explain how human factor engineering principles can be used to inform changes, discuss potential challenges to implement more effective work environments and share outcomes of successful re-engineered processes at TOH.
Objectives:
- Enhance the knowledge and understanding of human factors
- Gain information about the application of human factor engineering in modern radiotherapy departments
- Learn about human factor engineering resources available
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$20 Non-Members