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At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1998

Human factors in technology replacement: a case study in interface design for a public transport monitoring system.

This paper describes ergonomic issues raised during a project to provide a replacement real-time bus route control system to a large public transport company. Task and system analyses highlighted several deficiencies in the original system architecture, the human-machine interfaces and the general approach to system management. The eventual live prototype replaced the existing original system for a trial evaluation period of several weeks. During this period a number of studies was conducted with the system users in order to measure any improvements the new system, with its ergonomic features, produced over the old. Importantly, the results confirmed that (a) general responsiveness and service quality were improved, and (b) users were more comfortable with the new design. We conclude with a number of caveats which we believe will be useful to any group addressing technology impact in a large organisation.

Attitude↗
PubMed1999

Elderly and young driver's reaction to an in-car enforcement and tutoring system.

A system that contrasts driver behaviour with normative behaviour was tested in an advanced driving simulator. Drivers were provided with auditory and visual tutoring messages if deviations were detected from normative, i.e. legally allowed behaviour with respect to a selection of offences. Results showed that the system was very effective in increasing law-abiding behaviour, which has a major positive effect on traffic safety. However, driver mental effort, as indicated by self-reports and drivers' physiological states, was slightly increased in conditions where drivers received feedback. Opinion about the tutoring system was positive in terms of usefulness. Self-reports on satisfaction differed between age groups; young drivers rated it low, while elderly drivers held a positive attitude.

Accidents, Traffic↗
PubMed1976

Systems analysis of computerized EKG processing center.

A functional description of a computerized system for analysis of electrocardiograms (EKGs) is presented. Although it is recognized that the diagnostic accuracy of the program is the critical parameter in determining system acceptance, other system features such as quality control, turn around time and cost are shown to be of high importance. A digital simulation of alternative configurations for on-line data acquisition is presented. The simulation predicts the system throughout and wait times in different phases of a telephone EKG transmission for combinations of interfaces, telephone lines and acquisition procedures. These results should be helpful in selecting the appropriate configuration for each special situation.

Computers↗
PubMed2001

Cervical strength of young adults in sagittal, coronal, and intermediate planes.

OBJECTIVES: To measure the cervical isometric force generation capacity of men and women reliably while seated in upright neutral posture. DESIGN: The cervical muscle isometric strength was determined in flexion, extension, lateral flexion, anterolateral flexion and posterolateral extensions in an upright seated neutral posture. For this measurement a device was designed, fabricated and its reliability established. BACKGROUND: To-date only a few studies on cervical strength data have been published. Of these, validity of some data is suspected due to the use of unstandardized methodology. No studies were identified which reported cervical strengths in lateral and oblique planes. METHODS: A testing device consisting of sturdy, stable and strong telescopic adjustable square metal tube was firmly bolted in the floor. Another rotating metal tube was pivoted and adjustably counterweighted and attached to an immovable object with a load cell in its path. Using a horizontal bar upholstered at the terminal end attached to the rotating tube 40 young subjects were tested. They exerted their maximal voluntary isometric contraction in flexion, extension, lateral flexion, anterolateral flexion, and posterolateral extension bilaterally. RESULTS: Cervical muscle strength was maximum in extension and minimal in anterolateral flexion (which was very close to flexion strength). With progressive change in direction towards posterior region the strength progressively increased. There was a significant difference between male and female strengths (P < 0.01). The flexion/extension ratio of males was 1:1.37 and for females 1:1.79. There was a significant difference in strength values in different directions (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The cervical strength is direction dependent. The extension generates maximum force and flexion close to minimum. A progressive change from anterior to posterior direction generates increasing force. RELEVANCE: There is insufficient information regarding cervical strength, which may at least indirectly and in part, indicate the force bearing capacity of cervical musculature. The present study furnishes some data to this end.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Variability in nursing workload within CMGs (case mix groups).

This study examines the differences in workload estimates of three patient classification systems in nursing, within selected Case Mix Groups (CMGs). The amount of variation explained by selected patient-specific variables within CMGs on average nursing workload by each system is also analyzed. Results show that, when patient classification data are used to explain nursing time within the Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) context, absolute hours of care estimates of the various systems may not be equivalent. This inequality may result in biased budget review practices unless relational statements are developed between systems.

Canada↗
PubMed1998

Sentinel events: approaches to error reduction and prevention.

Serious and undesirable events in health care organizations should trigger analysis and response to minimize the risk of recurrence. Sentinel Events: Evaluating Cause and Planning Improvement, a new book from the Joint Commission, describes the types of errors and sentinel events that have been reported in health care organizations, how organizations can respond to these events, how sentinel events are investigated through root cause analysis, and the Joint Commission's policy on sentinel events. Several case studies and examples demonstrate successful event investigation and improvement efforts in health care organizations. This excerpt addresses prevention of sentinel events through proactive, risk-reduction approaches. It is our hope that, even without the stimulus of a sentinel event, organizations will embrace the concept of prospective design and analysis of health care processes and systems to minimize the possibility of errors and to protect patients from the effects of errors that do occur.

Anesthesia Department, Hospital↗
PubMed2003

Preventing medical errors by designing benign failures.

BACKGROUND: One way to successfully reduce medical errors is to design health care systems that are more resistant to the tendencies of human beings to err. One interdisciplinary approach entails creating design changes, mitigating human errors, and making human error irrelevant to outcomes. This approach is intended to facilitate the creation of benign failures, which have been called mistake-proofing devices and forcing functions elsewhere. USING FAULT TREES TO DESIGN FORCING FUNCTIONS: A fault tree is a graphical tool used to understand the relationships that either directly cause or contribute to the cause of a particular failure. A careful analysis of a fault tree enables the analyst to anticipate how the process will behave after the change. EXAMPLE OF AN APPLICATION: A scenario in which a patient is scalded while bathing can serve as an example of how multiple fault trees can be used to design forcing functions. The first fault tree shows the undesirable event--patient scalded while bathing. The second fault tree has a benign event--no water. Adding a scald valve changes the outcome from the undesirable event ("patient scalded while bathing") to the benign event ("no water") LIMITATIONS: Analysis of fault trees does not ensure or guarantee that changes necessary to eliminate error actually occur. Most mistake-proofing is used to prevent simple errors and to create well-defended processes, but complex errors can also result. CONCLUSIONS: The utilization of mistake-proofing or forcing functions can be thought of as changing the logic of a process. Errors that formerly caused undesirable failures can be converted into the causes of benign failures. The use of fault trees can provide a variety of insights into the design of forcing functions that will improve patient safety.

Causality↗
PubMed2006

Typological effects on spelling development: a crosslinguistic study of Hebrew and Dutch.

This study investigates the role of phonological and morphological information in children's developing orthographies in two languages with different linguistic typologies: Hebrew, a Semitic language with a highly synthetic morphology, and Dutch, a Germanic language with a sparse morphology. 192 Israeli and 192 Belgian monolingual schoolchildren in grades 1-6 (aged 6;0-12;0) were administered respective dictation tasks in which homophonous segments were the targets. In each language, these phonologically distinct segments are neutralized phonetically but are nevertheless represented orthographically. In both languages the target segments in the test words differed along two dimensions: (1) their morphological function as part of a stem or root versus as part of an affix; and (2) their morphophonological recoverability. The spelling tests in both languages consisted of four conditions which differed in the number and type of cues for retrieving the correct spelling of homophonous graphemes. The cues were of two types: morphological cues, which offer spellers clues to the correct spelling through consistent orthography/morphology mapping regularities; and morphophonological cues, which offer spellers clues to the correct spelling through the manipulation of orthography/morphophonology conversion procedures. A central finding of this study is the differential treatment of morphological cues by Dutch and Hebrew spelling learners. When faced with neutralized segments with and without morphological function, Hebrew-speaking children find morphology an enormously helpful tool. Dutch-speaking children, in contrast, do not find morphology a good cue provider. The impact of typology on the interface between spoken and written language is invoked as an explanation of the main findings.

Belgium↗
PubMed2004

Beyond sensory images: Object-based representation in the human ventral pathway.

We investigated whether the topographically organized, category-related patterns of neural response in the ventral visual pathway are a representation of sensory images or a more abstract representation of object form that is not dependent on sensory modality. We used functional MRI to measure patterns of response evoked during visual and tactile recognition of faces and manmade objects in sighted subjects and during tactile recognition in blind subjects. Results showed that visual and tactile recognition evoked category-related patterns of response in a ventral extrastriate visual area in the inferior temporal gyrus that were correlated across modality for manmade objects. Blind subjects also demonstrated category-related patterns of response in this "visual" area, and in more ventral cortical regions in the fusiform gyrus, indicating that these patterns are not due to visual imagery and, furthermore, that visual experience is not necessary for category-related representations to develop in these cortices. These results demonstrate that the representation of objects in the ventral visual pathway is not simply a representation of visual images but, rather, is a representation of more abstract features of object form.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

How system designers think: a study of design thinking in human factors engineering.

The paper presents a descriptive study of design thinking in human factors engineering. The objective of the study is to analyse the role of interpretation in design thinking and the role of design practice in guiding interpretation. The study involved 10 system designers undertaking the allocation of cognitive functions in three production planning and control task scenarios. Allocation decisions were recorded and verbal protocols of the design process were collected to elicit the subjects' thought processes. Verbal protocol analysis showed that subjects carried out the design of cognitive task allocation as a problem of applying a selected automation technology from their initial design deliberations. This design strategy stands in contrast to the predominant view of system design that stipulates that user requirements should be thoroughly analysed prior to making any decisions about technology. Theoretical frameworks from design research and ontological design showed that the system design process may be better understood by recognizing the role of design hypotheses in system design, as well as the diverse interactions between interpretation and practice, means and ends, and design practice and the designer's pre-understanding which shape the design process. Ways to balance the bias exerted on the design process were discussed.

Automation↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Prospective memory failures as an unexplored threat to patient safety: results from a pilot study using patient simulators to investigate the missed execution of intentions.

This study investigated failures of prospective memory (PM) as a relevant but neglected error type in medicine. A patient simulator was used to investigate PM failures. The influence of subjective importance (high, low) and type of intention (educational, internal, external) on the (missed) execution of intention was investigated in a 2 x 2 design. The effects on missed executions by importance (high < low) and type of intention (educational < external < internal) were hypothesized. Of 73 valid intentions in 40 prepared simulator scenarios 19 (26%) were missed overall. A total of 64% of unimportant and 80% of important intentions were executed 79% of educational 67% of external and 72% of internal intentions were executed. Neither difference was statistically significant using chi(2) tests. Interaction was significant for missed executions (p = 0.025; n = 19; df = 2; chi(2) = 7.41) and for executions (p = 0.002; n = 54; df = 2; chi(2) = 12.50). Despite low statistical support and some methodological limitations, it was possible to show that PM failures are relevant to patient safety and that patient simulators are a suitable but so far unused tool for their investigation.

Anesthesia Department, Hospital↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Identification of systems failures in successful paediatric cardiac surgery.

Patient safety will benefit from an approach to human error that examines systemic causes, rather than blames individuals. This study describes a direct observation methodology, based on a threat and error model, prospectively to identify types and sources of systems failures in paediatric cardiac surgery. Of substantive interest were the range, frequency and types of failures that could be identified and whether minor failures could accumulate to form more serious events, as has been the case in other industries. Check lists, notes and video recordings were employed to observe 24 successful operations. A total of 366 failures were recorded. Coordination and communication problems, equipment problems, a relaxed safety culture, patient-related problems and perfusion-related problems were most frequent, with a smaller number of skill, knowledge and decision-making failures. Longer and more risky operations were likely to generate a greater number of minor failures than shorter and lower risk operations, and in seven higher-risk cases frequently occurring minor failures accumulated to threaten the safety of the patient. Non-technical errors were more prevalent than technical errors and task threats were the most prevalent systemic source of error. Adverse events in surgery are likely to be associated with a number of recurring and prospectively identifiable errors. These may be co-incident and cumulative human errors predisposed by threats embedded in the system, rather than due to individual incompetence or negligence. Prospectively identifying and reducing these recurrent failures would lead to improved surgical standards and enhanced patient safety.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Collaborative planning and situation awareness in Army command and control.

We conducted a theoretical investigation of a complex command and control (C2) operation--the manoeuvres planning processes in Army land-battle situations, to improve understanding of how technology can best be designed to support planning and course of action development. We drew upon results from cognitive task analyses and interviews with subject matter experts and insights gleaned from observations of Army training exercises and experiments to make inferences on the C2 activities carried out in preparation for tactical manoeuvres. In this paper, we summarize several critical human factors issues associated with planning in a rapidly evolving environment, as identified in our investigation, and describe system design concepts aimed at addressing these challenges to distributed collaborative planning of C2 activities. We conclude with implications for the application of these findings to other C2 domains.

Awareness↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A naturalistic study of railway controllers.

There is an increasing prevalence for work to be analysed through naturalistic study, especially using ethnographically derived methods of enquiry and qualitative field research. The relatively unexplored domain of railway control (in comparison to signalling) in the UK is described in terms of features derived from observations and semi-structured interviews. In addition, task diagrams (a technique taken from the Applied Cognitive Task Analysis toolkit) are used to represent controllers' core elements of work, i.e. to manage events or incidents, and to identify the challenging steps in the process. The work features identified, the task diagrams, and the steps identified as challenging form a basis from which future ergonomics studies on railway controllers in the UK will be carried out.

Cognition↗