Human Factors & Ergonomics (HFE) Hub

Sharon Todd is chatting with Alison Heller-Ono, PT, MSPT, CPE, President and CEO of Worksite International, Inc. Alison is passionate about how people work! As an entrepreneur, pioneer, and bold industry leader in the ergonomics marketplace since 1993, Alison helps small- to mid-size multinational and global employers keep employees healthy so they can work to their full potential. Alison is a trusted advisor and consultant to clients who desire a safe, comfortable, and productive workforce.  She is also a coach and mentor to professionals desiring to learn about occupational ergonomics. Alison has presented her high-impact work on ergonomics to global audiences on four continents.Ms. Heller-Ono is a veteran Physical Therapist with dual credentials as a Certified Industrial Ergonomist (CIE) and Certified Professional Ergonomist (CPE), as well as a Certified Disability Analyst. Her sought-after expertise is in preventing and managing work-related musculoskeletal disorders while finding reasonable solutions to drive change within organizations. Worksite International helps employers to save thousands of dollars while boosting morale and productivity through the science of ergonomics. WI’s focus is on office, home, remote, lab, and industrial ergonomics. Under Alison’s guidance, Worksite International launched the Worksite International Ergonomics Training Academy in 2018, featuring online classes targeted for employers and employees to learn about ergonomics at work. The Academy also offers professional courses to become certified ergonomics specialists (CASp, COESp, CRESp) using the Worksite International System of Ergonomics Evaluation (WISEE)® and the Worksite International Ergonomics Process (WIEP)®.  She recently launched Worksite International’s first cloud-based software solutions. The Ergo-Case Tracker for individual ergonomic case management and ergonomics process metrics tracking. The Chair Assessment System (CAS) is a chair asset management software used to determine the quality and competency of chair assets in the workplace.  This educational podcast is brought to you by the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society of Australia. If you like this podcast please make us your favourite on your podcast app. If you want to find out more about Human Factors and Ergonomics or if you have a question about this podcast please go to the HFESA website ergonomics.org.au and make your request via our contact page. We will be back with more episodes soon!

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.This educational podcast is brought to you by the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society of Australia. If you like this podcast please make us your favourite on your podcast app. If you want to find out more about Human Factors and Ergonomics or if you have a question about this podcast please go to the HFESA website ergonomics.org.au and make your request via our contact page. We will be back with more episodes soon!

Sidney Irwin is an early career researcher and lecturer at the School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences at Central Queensland University. She received her doctorate from the same university. Her focus is on the normative rules of trash talk in esports and is expanding her expertise towards esport psychology, human factors and user experiences. Currently, Sidney is focused on investigating the impact of jet lag on professional player performance. She has a qualitative research background and has grown her field of research towards rail, forestry and shiftwork sectors.This educational podcast is brought to you by the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society of Australia. If you like this podcast please make us your favourite on your podcast app. If you want to find out more about Human Factors and Ergonomics or if you have a question about this podcast please go to the HFESA website ergonomics.org.au and make your request via our contact page. We will be back with more episodes soon!

Gemma Read from the Centre for Human Factors and Sociotechnical Systems (UniSC) chats to Samantha Jackson about Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) safety.  Samantha Jackson is a registered psychologist, human factors professional, and PhD candidate. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology), a Bachelor of Social Science (Psychology)(Honours), and a Postgraduate Certificate in Safety and Accident Investigation.   She served in the Australian Army for 24 years, holding both generalist and specialist officer roles across full-time and part-time service. Her career spanned multiple domains, including communications and information systems, aviation, health, and policy. In her final role, she served within Army Aviation’s Psychology and Human Factors team, where she provided specialist advice on system safety, human performance, role suitability, occupational selection, task and systems analysis, incident investigation, and fatigue risk management.  She is currently pursuing a PhD at the Centre for Human Factors and Sociotechnical Systems at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Her research aims to enhance the safety performance of Australia’s Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) by applying systems thinking through a many-models approach. Specifically, she aims to identify key leverage points within the sociotechnical safety management system to optimise its overall effectiveness.  Associate Professor Gemma Read and Professor Paul Salmon are supervising Samantha’s research. Gemma and Samantha discuss her recent study which analysed 14 RPAS incident investigation reports. The article is available open access here:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003687025000043 This educational podcast is brought to you by the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society of Australia. If you like this podcast please make us your favourite on your podcast app. If you want to find out more about Human Factors and Ergonomics or if you have a question about this podcast please go to the HFESA website ergonomics.org.au and make your request via our contact page. We will be back with more episodes soon!

Mary Patterson MD, MEd is a pediatric emergency medicine physician and the Associate Dean of Experiential Learning and the Lou Oberndorf Professor of Healthcare Technology at the University of Florida where she has directed the Center for Experiential Learning and Simulation since 2018.  She is past- president of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare and has served on the BOD for the Society of Simulation in Healthcare and the International Pediatric Simulation Society. In addition, she is the Chair of the Executive Committee of the Resilient Healthcare Society. She was the founding medical director of the Cincinnati Children’s Center for Simulation, Education and Research.  In addition, she was the Associate Vice Chair Medical Education and Executive Director of Simulation at Children’s National Medical Center. Mary has served as the Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Florida since 2021. Mary has been a federally funded investigator in simulation, team performance and patient safety and publishes in the areas of patient safety, team performance, human factors and Resilience Engineering.  She is a past chair of the Healthcare Safety and Quality Improvement Research Study Section of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.  She was inducted as a Fellow of the Academy of the Society of Simulation in Healthcare in 2018This educational podcast is brought to you by the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society of Australia. If you like this podcast please make us your favourite on your podcast app. If you want to find out more about Human Factors and Ergonomics or if you have a question about this podcast please go to the HFESA website ergonomics.org.au and make your request via our contact page. We will be back with more episodes soon!

Craig Fletcher and Sharon Todd explore the world of designing HFE into projects including some recent work on the use of VR to reduce suicide on the rail network.Craig has 25 years experience in the area of ergonomics and human factors, both in Australia and the UK. He is experienced in conducting human factors assessments for a broad range of industry and application. Craig is focussed on delivering practical solutions to human factors problems and is experienced in managing a wide range of human factors projects.This educational podcast is brought to you by the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society of Australia. If you like this podcast please make us your favourite on your podcast app. If you want to find out more about Human Factors and Ergonomics or if you have a question about this podcast please go to the HFESA website ergonomics.org.au and make your request via our contact page. We will be back with more episodes soon!

Karen Lange-Morales, David Caple and Andrew S. Imada discusses the work of the IEA and their new publication "Giving your business the Humans Factors Edge  - Making it Happen"  to improve productivity, quality of products and the wellbeing of employees.The International Ergonomics Association (IEA) is a non-profit international federation of ergonomics and human factors societies from around the world. This document was developed as part of the Science, Technology and Practice Standing Committee (2021-2024)Karen Lange-Morales is associate professor at Universidad Nacional de Colombia. She has worked as a consultant in ergonomics and design in public and private sectors including farming, oil, manufacturing, education, banking, and food areas, among others.David Caple has led an independent health, safety and ergonomics practitioner company since 1985. He has conducted Work Health and Safety research and practice projects in Australia and internationally for Governments, industry groups, companies and unions. He was an Adjunct Professor at Latrobe University in the Ergonomics and Health and Safety programs for the last 20 years. David was the 16th President of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA) 2006-2009 and represented the IEA at conferences and meetings in 30 countries.Andrew S. Imada is a macroergonomics consultant specializing in human and organisational change. He works with people and organisations to change their cultures, respond to scalability demands, and implement disruptive technologies. He helps them meet these challenges by balancing organisational, safety, quality, and human needs.AcknowledgmentsWe are grateful for the invaluable support received from Nancy Black, Rosemary Seva, Nancy Larson, Glenn Azevedo in reading and providing feedback on the document, as well as Yushi Fujita and the IEA standards committee. We also appreciate the feedback on the structure received from Andrew Thatcher, Klaus Zink, Pascale Carayon, Ole Broberg, and Gabriel Garcia-Acosta. Finally, we highlight the valuable support of Dixie Imada in achieving a "more readable" document, Sharon Herbstreit for her support in the feedback process, Senana Brugger for her pertinent formal appreciations and Lukas Garcia-Lange for his advice on the use of AI.This educational podcast is brought to you by the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society of Australia. If you like this podcast please make us your favourite on your podcast app. If you want to find out more about Human Factors and Ergonomics or if you have a question about this podcast please go to the HFESA website ergonomics.org.au and make your request via our contact page. We will be back with more episodes soon!

In this enlightening discussion, Donna Duffy, a seasoned Human Factors Engineering Specialist with over 25 years in the field, shares her journey from psychology to the forefront of human factors in defense and aviation. She delves into cognitive modeling for interface design and the significance of human-machine teaming, particularly for autonomous systems. Donna highlights her role in the MQ-28 Ghost Bat project and the importance of ergonomics for operators. She also discusses innovative VR solutions for maintenance checks and the challenges of rapid prototyping while advocating for user safety.

Sharon Todd chats to Professor Robyn Clay-Williams about Emergency Department design for underserved cohorts. Robyn leads a research program at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University, in the field of human factors in healthcare. Over a career spanning nearly 45 years in aviation and healthcare, Robyn has worked extensively to develop and evaluate systems to make them fit for purpose and easier to use. Robyn provides expert advice to policymakers, clinicians, researchers and consumers across Australia and globally, and has made international contributions, including invited lectures, to universities in the US, Europe and South America. Currently Robyn is leading a team to develop new models of care to improve Emergency Department performance, and patient experience and outcomes for five vulnerable patient cohorts: older adults, ethnic minorities, people living with disability, people living with mental illness, and Indigenous Australians. Her 2019 TEDx talk on human factors is available on the global TED.com platform. Prior to her academic career, Robyn was a Royal Australian Air Force test pilot.This educational podcast is brought to you by the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society of Australia. If you like this podcast please make us your favourite on your podcast app. If you want to find out more about Human Factors and Ergonomics or if you have a question about this podcast please go to the HFESA website ergonomics.org.au and make your request via our contact page. We will be back with more episodes soon!

Sharon Todd is chatting to Sam Gerges about his ergonomics programs to minimise injuries and reduce injury costs in Vehicle Manufacturing.Sam is a qualified physiotherapist, egonomics and occupational health and safety specialist with over 15 years experience working in Australia, Japan and America. Experienced across many industries including manufacturing, oil and gas, forestry, retail and logistics, Sam possesses expert, practical knowledge of ergonomics and human factors, part, process and ewuipment and plant design, hazard identification, risk analysis, control implementation, compliance and auditing.The Current HFESA Victorian Committee Chairperson and Director of Absolute Care Group, Sam's goal is to progress the knowledge of ergonomics in safety and health professionals and partner with organisations to prevent development of musculoskeletal  injuries in their workplsve while progressing their safety maturity journey. This educational podcast is brought to you by the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society of Australia. If you like this podcast please make us your favourite on your podcast app. If you want to find out more about Human Factors and Ergonomics or if you have a question about this podcast please go to the HFESA website ergonomics.org.au and make your request via our contact page. We will be back with more episodes soon!