Ken Catchpole - Imparting Systems Thinking to Healthcare

Sharon Todd chats to Dr Ken Catchpole one of the HFESA's keynote speakers for the annual conference in Tasmania Australia in December. So who is he, what does he do and what can we expect? 

Dr Ken Catchpole is a cognitive scientist and human factors practitioner who seeks to understand and improve human performance in complex systems. After leading a nationwide project developing human abilities in weapon detection at UK airports, he began research in healthcare in 2003 at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, examining the mechanisms of teamwork and safety in surgery. He now works with clinicians to develop and scientifically evaluate interventions to improve performance, while taking a semi-ethnographic approach to understanding the complex nature of safety, quality and human error in healthcare.

In the past he has contributed to healthcare research and improvement at hospitals in the UK, Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand; and has assisted a number of UK groups, including Royal Colleges of Anaesthetists and Surgeons, in the establishment of human factors principles in healthcare. His work with the Ferrari racing team on handovers from surgery to intensive care was short-listed for the Times Research Project of the Year in 2007, was adopted internationally by a variety of hospitals and quality improvement organisations, and was exhibited in the Science Museum in London.

After working at the University of Oxford for nearly 6 years, he was invited to join Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles to embark on new projects in trauma, handovers, teamwork, and systems redesign. Subsequently, he moved to the Medical University of South Carolina, where he has lead major grants in medication safety, surgical technology, instrument reprocessing, and retained foreign objects, with a large number of smaller projects. Through popular and scientific articles, keynote addresses, and media coverage, he has sought to engage a worldwide audience in the evaluation and improvement of safety in healthcare from a human factors perspective.

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