Eric Shaver

Human Factors Professional

Home Office Ergonomics Checklist

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The COVID-19 crisis has seen a substantial increase in the number of people that are working from their homes, lofts, and apartments. 

Many of these people are spending an increased number of hours in front of a computer in a makeshift home office. Unfortunately, the design and arrangement of many home offices can contribute to aches, pains, and even CTDs (cumulative trauma disorders). But it doesn’t have to be this way.

I realize that in this uncertain time, for many people, spending large sums of money on their home office right now is unrealistic. That’s very understandable. This is why I will be writing a series of posts to give the remote worker tips and techniques to redesign or reorganize their home office to maximize their comfort and efficiency. 

This first post provides a checklist (see below) that can be downloaded and used to evaluate your current home office set up. Please feel free to share it with your colleagues, family, and friends.

Subsequent posts will address many of the topics covered in the checklist, (i.e., chairs, keyboards, mouse, monitors, etc.) along with things that increase efficiency, health, and joy. 

I look forward to sharing ideas with you over the coming weeks. Let’s do what we can to make our home environment as hospitable as possible for working. You owe it to yourself and your family!

Root Cause Analysis for Medical Devices

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I’m pleased to announce that a chapter, Root Cause Analysis, I co-authored with two of my Human Factors MD colleagues, Tim Reeves, PhD and Christina Mendat, PhD, was published this summer in Applied Human Factors in Medical Device Design.  

The chapter discusses why root cause analysis is vital for understanding the reasons why errors occur when people use medical devices.

Topics covered in the chapter include:

  • Understanding the causes of use errors
  • Root cause analysis methods
  • Common pitfalls seen when performing a root cause analysis
  • Examples of root cause analysis

This chapter should be of interest to human factors, engineers, and regulatory professionals working on medical devices and combination products.  

You can purchase a copy of the book at Amazon.

Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2018

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The ECRI Institute has published their annual Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2018. As noted in the brief, the list is published each year to identify:

“…the potential sources of danger that we believe warrant the greatest attention for the coming year. The list does not enumerate the most frequently reported problems or the ones associated with the most severe consequences—although we do consider such information in our analysis. Rather, the list reflects our judgment about which risks should receive priority now.” (p. 2)

The list includes:

  1. Ransomware and Other Cybersecurity Threats to Healthcare Delivery Can Endanger Patients
  2. Endoscope Reprocessing Failures Continue to Expose Patients to Infection Risk
  3. Mattresses and Covers May Be Infected by Body Fluids and Microbiological Contaminants
  4. Missed Alarms May Result from Inappropriately Configured Secondary Notification Devices and Systems
  5. Improper Cleaning May Cause Device Malfunctions, Equipment Failures, and Potential for Patient Injury
  6. Unholstered Electrosurgical Active Electrodes Can Lead to Patient Burns
  7. Inadequate Use of Digital Imaging Tools May Lead to Unnecessary Radiation Exposure
  8. Workarounds Can Negate the Safety Advantages of Bar-Coded Medication Administration Systems
  9. Flaws in Medical Device Networking Can Lead to Delayed or Inappropriate Care
  10. Slow Adoption of Safer Enteral Feeding Connectors Leaves Patients at Risk

If you’re interested in getting your own copy of the Executive Brief, visit this link.

 

FDA Guidance Document on Medical Device Interoperability

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On September 6th, the FDA issued the guidance document Design Considerations and Pre-market Submission Recommendations for Interoperable Medical Devices.

According to the document:

“This guidance is intended to highlight the following items that medical device manufacturers should consider to provide a reasonable assurance of safety and effectiveness of their interoperable medical devices: 1) designing systems with interoperability as an objective; 2) conducting appropriate verification, validation and risk management activities; and 3) specifying the relevant functional, performance, and interface characteristics in a user-available manner such as labeling.” (p. 3)

For those new to the topic, they define interoperability “…as the ability of two or more products, technologies or systems to exchange information and to use the information that has been exchanged.” (p. 2)

With respect to human factors, it highlights a couple areas of importance for our discipline, including:

  • “Validate the user(s) interface. Determine that the user(s) are capable of correctly using the interface(s)” (p. 11)
  • “Validation of labeling regarding the use of the electronic interface should consider human factors as appropriate.” (p. 17)

It’s good to see that the FDA understands the challenges associated with interoperability and that human factors is an important part of designing, developing, and deploying interoperable technology that allows users to safely and effectively perform their duties.