Healthcare Human Factors

Dr. Joseph Cafazzo is 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 acting manager 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.

Alvita Chan first joined the group in 2007 when she conducted her Master’s thesis on the topic of evaluating and redesigning a radiation therapy delivery system at University Health Network. With her prototype, she successfully reduced the error rates and increased efficiency of the treatment process. Now as a Human Factors Specialist with the team, Alvita continues to work on various medical tools and technologies, such as electronic medical records, clinician portals, physician order sets, smart infusion pumps and tele-monitoring systems. Alvita is avid about making clinicians and patients’ lives easier and safer through usable and intuitive technologies.

Alvita received her MHSc in Clinical Engineering from the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto. She also holds a BSc in Engineering Chemistry from Queen’s University with first class honors.

Diane has a strong interest in human-computer interaction and cognition and is ardent about improving system design in healthcare. Her recent projects have involved developing and evaluating prototypes for health information systems and conducting usability evaluations on medical devices including smart pumps.

Diane completed her Master of Health Informatics (MHI) from the University of Toronto and also holds a BSc with First Class Honours in Neuroscience and Computer Science from Dalhousie University. Her previous background includes working in the pharmaceutical industry, coordinating investigations into incidents affecting medication quality, safety, or regulatory standards and reviewing product quality trends to proactively monitor for potential areas of concern.

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.

Varuna is passionate about working at the intersection between healthcare and technology, including areas of patient safety, medical device usability, and effective design. Varuna first joined Healthcare Human Factors in 2008 as a Master’s thesis student at the University of Toronto. Her research focused on improving the safety of the chemotherapy delivery process by mitigating the effects of interruptions and distractions on nurses. Results of her work showed that errors in chemotherapy administration could be significantly reduced with the use of properly designed human factors interventions.

Varuna has completed internships at several national and international organizations, most recently including Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and the World Health Organization in Geneva. Her previous work spans the fields of radiation therapy, protein engineering, clinical technology implementation, and global eHealth intelligence.

Varuna holds an MHSc in Clinical Engineering and a BASc in Materials Engineering from the University of Toronto.

Dr. Svetlena Taneva specializes in the development and evaluation of human-centered technology and organizational processes in clinical environments. By incorporating knowledge of the social and cultural aspects of healthcare, she has leveraged workflows in the operating room setting that enhance safety and efficiency. Dr. Taneva has also been involved in the design of healthcare technologies at Siemens Medical, and brings international experience, having worked in Canada, the U.S., France, Germany, and Switzerland.

Dr. Taneva has published extensively in a number of scientific journals and conferences relating to healthcare human factors and patient safety. In addition, she is the author of a book on the management of surgical coordination processes, and a co-author of a book chapter on technology-based approaches to mental health care. Dr. Taneva is a frequent public speaker to professional and scientific audiences.

Dr. Taneva holds a PhD in Engineering, specializing in Healthcare Human Factors, a Master of Computer Science specializing in Cognitive Engineering and Human-Computer Interaction, and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology.

Chris Flewwelling is currently working towards his MHSc in Clinical Engineering from the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto. He joined Healthcare Human Factors in January 2011 when he began working on his MHSc thesis under the supervision of Dr. Joseph Cafazzo. Chris also spent time working with the group as an intern during the summer of 2011 where he developed a greater understanding of the human factors principles for his thesis research.

Chris holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering from Queen’s University.

Emily Rose is currently working towards her MHSc in Clinical Engineering from the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto. Her Master’s thesis topic is focused on preventing errors in IV medication delivery. Specifically, she is investigating the effectiveness of a medication administration checklist compared to a smart infusion pump with drug libraries, dosage limits and bar-code capabilities at mitigating errors in IV medication administration.

Emily also recently completed a four-month internship with the Healthcare Human Factors group where she was engaged in usability testing for various medical technologies.

Emily holds a BASc in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto specializing in Biomedical Engineering. She has previous research experience in the fields of cellular biomechanics and biomaterials.