Healthcare Human Factors

Dr. Joseph Cafazzo is Executive Director of Healthcare Human Factors, UHN and Lead for the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, a state-of-the-art healthcare-focused usability facility. The Healthcare Human Factors Group is the largest group of its kind devoted to the application of human factors engineering to problems of healthcare delivery and patient safety.

Dr. Cafazzo has been active in the user-centered design of new systems and ethnographic research related to nursing workflow and new modes of nursing care mediated by technology. He has advised and conducted research for public sector policy makers and private sector medical technology companies on the design and safety of technology in healthcare.

He is Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, and the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, where he teaches and conducts research in the areas of human factors, clinical engineering, and health informatics.

In 2010 he was the recipient of the Career Scientist award by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.

Wayne Ho is currently the Managing Principal of Healthcare Human Factors. In the past 15 years he has focused on the interaction between people and technology as an Interaction Designer and Usability Specialist. He is passionate about improving the design of software, devices, and processes in healthcare.

Wayne joins the team from IBM where he was the User Experience Lead for the family of IBM Rational Quality Management software solutions. In that role, he led a multi-disciplinary team of software developers, product managers, executives, and human factors professionals through a user-centered design process.

Wayne holds a BASc in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo and a MEng in Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto specialising in Human Factors.

Since joining Healthcare Human Factors Group in 2007, Carleene has been conducting human factors evaluations of various medical devices and software applications for healthcare use. Her work is highly informed by her previous role as a Medical Engineering Technologist at Toronto Western Hospital. Her knowledge and expertise stems from working with a variety of medical equipment and enables her to readily identify problems and provide recommendations with respect to the design, usability and safety implications of new and existing products used in healthcare.

Carleene holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from Ryerson University and has been working for the University Health Network since 2003.

Deborah Chan specializes in designing and evaluating software applications for ease of use and excels at analyzing complex workflows and interactions involving multiple stakeholders. Deborah has been involved in national initiatives sponsored by Canada Health Infoway to accelerate the adoption of electronic health technologies, and has led the design and evaluation of healthcare devices and systems for organizations across the province. She is passionate about the use of user-centered design methods in the healthcare industry and advocates for this cause by participating in a wide range of educational initiatives.

Deborah holds a degree in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo and is a registered professional engineer with Profession Engineers Ontario (PEO).

Chris first joined Healthcare Human Factors in 2011 as a Master’s student under the supervision of Dr. Joseph Cafazzo. His Master’s thesis focused on identifying latent usability-related design flaws in medical devices through analysis of medical equipment maintenance data. His research demonstrated that usability-related design flaws manifest themselves as an increase in “No Fault Found” reporting. As a result, Chris’ research has provided a methodology that can be applied by healthcare institutions to reduce occurrences of medical device use error.

Chris is passionate about the expanding responsibly of the Clinical Engineer in ensuring the safe and efficient delivery of healthcare. In particular, he is interested in improving patient safety through promoting and participating in the user-centered design of medical devices and technologies. Chris has contributed to projects such as the design of a mobile clinical collaboration system, and the evaluation of smart infusion pumps and mobile anesthesia delivery units.

Jennifer has extensive knowledge and experience in applying human factors principles to address patient safety issues, including design and implementation of smart infusion systems, medication labeling, chemotherapy safety, and radiotherapy safety. In particular, she is interested in patient safety issues related to the design of physician order communication tools (e.g., preprinted orders and computerized physician order entry systems) as she led the development of guidelines for designing preprinted orders for ambulatory chemotherapy.

Jennifer holds a MASc and a BASc in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo. Through her Master’s thesis, she has developed specialized knowledge in medication labeling and packaging. She applied her expertise to the government initiatives for addressing medication safety issues at Marketed Health Products Directorate, Health Canada.

Tara joined the Healthcare Human Factors group in 2008, and has since conducted numerous studies designing and evaluating healthcare technology and workflow. She works with clients in both the public and private sectors to address usability and patient safety using a human-centred approach. Tara’s experience with the team has included procurement decision support, product and interface design, EHR adoption support, technology assessments and Human Factors education.

Tara also holds the role of Patient Safety Lead, providing guidance to operational leaders and clinical staff to support the reduction of preventable patient injuries that can occur during the provision of care.

Before joining Healthcare Human Factors, Tara gained valuable human factors experience in the areas of automotive and military applied research. Tara holds a bachelor’s degree in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo, and is a licensed Professional Engineer with Professional Engineers Ontario.

Stephanie brings a unique perspective to the Human Factors team with previous experience in health promotion and disease prevention in the private and not-for-profit sectors. She recently completed a practicum with the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, where she explored the current use of technologies to promote disease prevention and enable behaviour change among consumers. During this practicum, she also participated in cognitive walkthroughs, semi-structured interviews, data analysis and content development that contributed to the development of two mobile health applications. Stephanie is looking forward to contributing to and learning more about how design can influence health behaviour among the general public.

Stephanie has a BSc in Nutritional and Nutraceutical Sciences from the University of Guelph, a Workplace Wellness and Health Promotion certificate from Centennial College, and a Master of Public Health from the University of Waterloo.

Peter is a human factors analyst. His interests include patient safety, interface design, resilient systems, and integrating user centered and participatory design techniques into healthcare. Peter has a BEng in Aerospace Engineering specializing in space systems design and operated an IT consultancy before earning an MHSc in Clinical Biomedical Engineering from the University of Toronto. In his Master’s Thesis, Peter developed methods to train clinicians in Heuristic Evaluation, and specifically explored the impact of professional backgrounds on the outcome of the evaluations.

His recent projects include: the design of a mobile clinical collaboration system for use across disciplinary and institutional boundaries and a new portal for UHN patients. His expertise includes the use of rapid prototyping techniques to explore, develop, and refine designs across different platforms and contexts. He is extremely passionate about clinical engineering and the potential it has to bring important change to healthcare systems both in Canada and around the world.

Shivani Goyal is a Clinical Engineering PhD candidate from the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto, conducting her research at the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation. Shivani’s research interests are in the realm of behavior change and chronic disease management. She is driven by the overwhelming prevalence of chronic disease and the need to improve the quality of health care delivery by maximizing the effectiveness of health interventions.

Shivani completed her Master’s thesis at the Montreal Heart Institute, where she evaluated innovative cardiovascular medical devices. She presented the safety, effectiveness and overall feasibility of the biomedical devices to the key decision makers of the hospital. Shivani also completed an internship with the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, where she efficiently managed multiple medical technology replacement projects while simultaneously participating in research and development initiatives. Prior to her contributions to the healthcare industry, Shivani interned as an Aerospace Engineer at top organizations in both Canada and Europe.

Shivani received her MASc in Clinical Engineering from the Faculty of Medicine at the Université de Montréal and her Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering with a specialization in Thermo-fluids and Propulsion from Concordia University.

Kim J. Vicente is founding director of the Cognitive Engineering Laboratory at the University of Toronto where he is a professor in the departments of mechanical engineering, computer science and electrical and computer engineering. Professor Vicente is also an adjunct professor of psychology at Miami University, Ohio, and a registered Professional Engineer in Ontario.

Professor Vicente has invented two areas of research — ecological interface design and cognitive work analysis — leading to hundreds of articles authored by many researchers around the world. One of his journal articles, co-authored with Jens Rasmussen, has been chosen as one of the most important papers in the 110 year history of human factors.

In 1999, Vicente authored the first textbook in the area of cognitive engineering, Cognitive Work Analysis: Toward Safe, Productive, and Healthy Computer-based Work, published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. His latest book, The Human Factor: Revolutionizing the Way We Live with Technology, was published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada in Canada (2003), Routledge in the U.S. (2004), Les Éditions Logiques in Québec (2004), and Ediouro in Brazil (2005). This book received the National Business Book Award and the Science in Society General Audience Book Award, and was a finalist for the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award for Non-fiction Book of the Year.

Professor Vicente has provided an expert opinion to the media on issues related to people and technology. He has been quoted, or his work featured, in numerous outlets including: CTV, Globe & Mail, Maclean’s, CBC Radio, and the Toronto Star.