Often new medical technology is used incorrectly or its sophisticated features never employed due to the poor design of the device. Dr. Joseph Cafazzo and his team at the Human Factors Innovation labs test medical devices and work the device designers to ensure a medical device is optimally designed for the end user without sacrificing functionality. This state of the art facility not only provides realistic settings and scenarios but also utilized actual users when testing devices. Issues related to human error due to weak design are addressed before the product is released. There is faster integration of the device into routine practice since the device intuitively makes sense and shorter training sessions are required. Ultimately such rigorous testing will assure utmost patient safety.
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Faculty Members Associated with this Core
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Co-lead, Design and Engineering for Health, Techna Institute; Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Dr. Joseph Cafazzo is the Clinical Core Lead for Design and Engineering at Techna. Therein, he leads two research initiatives, The Centre for Global eHealth Innovation and Healthcare Human Factors.
The Centre for Global eHealth Innovation is a state-of-the-art research facility devoted to the evaluation and design of healthcare technology, hosting seventy researchers and staff. Dr. Cafazzo has been an active researcher of the use of technology to facilitate patient self-care of complex chronic conditions such as diabetes, end-stage renal disease, and congestive heart failure. He is also active in ethnographic research related new modes of patient care mediated by technology, such as the Hospital-at-Home, and the Personal Health Record (PHR).
Additionally, he is Senior Director of UHN Healthcare Human Factors - the largest group of its kind devoted to the application of human factors engineering to problems of healthcare delivery and patient safety. He has advised and conducted research for public sector policy makers and private sector medical technology companies on the design and safety of technology in healthcare.
He is Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, and the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, where he teaches and conducts research in the areas of human factors, clinical engineering, and health informatics. In 2010 he was the recipient of the Career Scientist award by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.
active 1 week, 2 days ago
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Faculty, Design and Engineering for Health, Techna Institute; Associate Professor, University of Toronto
Dr. Anthony Easty holds a BSc (Hons), and D.Ic and PhD degrees from the UK. He is a Certified Clinical Engineer, and an Associate Professor at the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering, and in the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Toronto. He is Chair of the International Committee of the American College of Clinical Engineering and is Chair of the Canadian Board of Examiners for Clinical Engineering Certification. He also holds the Baxter Chair in Health Technology.
He is Director of the Department of Medical Engineering at the University Health Network (Toronto General Hospital, Toronto Western Hospital and Princess Margaret Hospital) and at Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto. Dr. Easty leads the Health Technology Safety Research Team based at the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation. This team includes colleagues with backgrounds in biomedical engineering, human factors engineering and cognitive psychology, qualified at the PhD and Masters levels. The team conducts safety-based research investigations on a range of topics in a broad spectrum of health care environments, including acute hospital-based care, cancer care and home-based care, using tools such as ethnographic research, systematic analysis, technical analysis, and simulation studies in the labs at the Centre. His current research interests include investigating the risks associated with multiple intravenous drug infusions, improving the safety of intravenous chemotherapy, and improving the safety of home-based care.
Dr. Easty has co-authored the Standards of Practice for Clinical Engineering in Canada, the first standard of this kind in the world, which are now used as the basis for peer reviews of departments in Canada and elsewhere. He is also co-author of a CD-ROM entitled “Aspects of Electrosurgery”, which provides guidance to surgeons, nurses, biomedical engineers and technologists, and others on the safe use of electrosurgery in the operating room with over 20 000 copies distributed. He was the inaugural winner of the ExCEL Award granted by the American College of Clinical Engineering for superior institutional leadership at a global level of performance.
active 2 months, 2 weeks ago
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Director, Research Faculty (Physical Sciences)
Dr. J. Paul Santerre is one of the world’s leading authorities in the area of polymer biodegradation studies and synthesis of polyurethane materials. He serves as a consultant for leading medical device manufacturers on material design and technical expertise in the field. As Director of the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering (IBBME) at the University of Toronto, Dr. Santerre provides leadership to more than 80 research engineers and scientists throughout the greater Toronto area that are engaged in discovery and product development in the areas of neuroscience and sensory stimulation, biomaterials and tissue engineering, molecular systems biology and nanotechnology, as well as medical device and drug delivery system design. His research program is focused on investigating the relationship between polymers and bio-degradation processes in the body in order to advance the design of new materials for tissue engineering, implants and medical devices. Prior to starting at U of T in 1993, Professor Santerre was the lead materials engineer on the artificial heart program at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. At U of T, he served as co-director of CIHR’s training network for Network for Oral Research Training and Health (NORTH) and was Associate Dean, Research in the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Dentistry. Currently, Professor Santerre holds appointments as full professor in the Division of Biomaterials within the Faculty of Dentistry, the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry and the Department of Materials Science & Engineering. Professor Santerre also founded a U of T biotech start-up company called Interface Biologics Inc, which develops catheters and drug-polymer coatings for medical devices. In 2004, Professor Santerre was inducted as a Fellow, Biomaterials Science and Engineering (FBSE) for lifetime achievement, and in 2009 became a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. In March 2010, he received the Julia Levy Award from the Canadian Society for Chemical Industry for translation of knowledge to product, and most recently was appointed as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Professor Santerre has carried out work on more than 65 peer-reviewed, funded grants and contracts totaling more than $14M in research activity. His group has published more than 135 peer-reviewed papers in leading biomaterial and polymer journals which have generated 59 patents in the field of biomedical and membrane technologies.
active 1 month, 1 week ago
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