Human factors and crisis management with Matt Edwards

In this conversation we will examine the fundamentals of human factors with Matt Edwards. We will focus on Human factors from an individual perspective. We will examine some of the seminal cases that Matt has experienced in practice and the concept of routine versus crisis from a checklist perspective. We will also examine how human interactions in healthcare change outcomes, from civility to risk aversion and the concept of trust. We will also examine the mitigation strategies that exist around the way an individual understands their environment can affect their ability to detect and respond to hazards from attention and perception. Also the mitigation of distraction, how to avoid decision-making paralysis, the limitations of memory, the regular attenders of stress and fatigue, and finally the effects of communication on the individual, task and team. 

To do I'm speaking with Matt Edwards, Matt is a consultant in Adult and Paediatric Emergency Medicine at Kings College Hospital, London and the lead for major trauma and education in Kings. He is also a HEMS Physician with Kent Surrey Sussex (KSS) Air Ambulance and the Polar Medicine course director for World Extreme Medicine. He has held positions as a HEMS Registrar with London’s Air Ambulance, a Flight Physician with AMREF Flying Doctors, Nairobi, and a Medical Officer with the British Antarctic Survey. In the conversation we examine:

·      What are human factors from Matt’s perspective 

·      How task and individual human factors have affected Matt in the past

·      How checklists work - routine vs crisis & the limitations of short term memory. 

·      Trust as a concept in healthcare teams and organisations - how human interactions in healthcare change outcomes - civility to risk aversion.

·      Fatigue, the regular attender in every clinicians journey

·      Distraction and how that affects performance

·      Decision making paralysis and how to break this

·      Teamwork and communication

Please enjoy this wide ranging conversation with Matt.