XClose

Wellcome / EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences

Home
Menu

Human Factors Interventions for Surgical Systems

28 June 2021

On 17 June we hosted our 8th virtual WEISS symposium, focusing on the theme of human factors interventions for surgical systems.

Virtual poster for Human Factors symposium, 17 June 2021, 10:00-12:30 BST

At WEISS we develop novel technologies that have the potential to have a huge impact on the health field. However, it is important that these new technologies provide a positive user experience both for the clinicians and patients. This is where our Human Factors research group comes in. Through a user-centred design process where users’ needs are considered every step of the way, human factors work with both our engineers and clinicians to ensure that the technology being developed fits within the intended context.

This symposium aimed to explore this important user-centred design process and discuss how healthcare can be approached from a human factors perspective.

Screen shot of zoom call for the human factors symposium

First up, Mark Billinghurst (UniSA, Australia) gave his talk ‘Lessons Learned for Telemedicine from Next Generation Collaboration Research’. He reviewed lessons learned from research in collaborative Augmented and Virtual Reality, and how they could be applied to Telemedicine. For example, how gaze and gesture could be communicated remotely, and use of novel avatar representations. (You can watch Mark’s talk from 1:47)

This was followed by a Human Factors workshop, led by Aneesha Singh and Enrico Costanza. They started by giving two short presentations providing an overview of research methods in humans factors. This was followed by splitting the participants into break out rooms in order to further discuss the different techniques used in user-centred design such as observation, interview and lab studies. (You can catch up on what happened in the Human Factors workshop from 46:16)

Next, Jeremy Opie launched a new resource hosted on the WEISS website designed to assist engineers when developing new technology. It includes pages on examples of the need for Human Factors, how to understand user needs and incorporate them into your design process, as well as details on regulations and ethics. (You can watch Jeremy talk about the new website at 1:25:00)

Finally, Helena Mentis (University of Maryland Baltimore Country, US) gave her talk ‘Crafting the Image in Surgery’. With a large shift in recent years to minimally invasive surgery, surgeons now heavily rely on imaging to see what is happening during surgery. Helena discussed the importance of how these imaging modalities are integrated into the surgical process. (You can watch Helena’s talk from 1:29:37)

Thanks to our fantastic Human Factors group, and in particular Soojeong Yoo who took lead in organising a brilliant symposium. If you missed it, you can catch up on the full symposium on our YouTube channel. The speakers slides are also available for download here

YouTube Widget Placeholderhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oINVvlnghA0&t=3514s