The 2007 SAEM/EMPSF Emergency Medicine Patient Safety Research Fellowship was awarded to Dr. Rollin J. Fairbanks from the University of Rochester. Dr. Fairbanks is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Rochester. Dr. Fairbanks’ grant, entitled, “Human Factors Engineering Approaches to Patient Safety in Emergency Medicine” is aimed in developing him into a patient safety researcher by a combination of didactic training and a mentored patient safety research project. The project focuses on training in human factors engineering with the ultimate goal of reducing use error in medical devices and ED information systems. Human Factors Engineering analysis techniques will be used to discover latent hazards in the design of ED information systems applications. The goal will be to implement future system changes which protect patients from preventable adverse events. Dr. Robert L. Wears will serve as the primary mentor of a mentoring committee including Keith Karn PhD, Stanley Caplan MS, and Manish N Shah MD MPH.

The research portion of the award will be guided by an expert mentorship committee chaired by Robert L. Wears, MD, MS, Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Florida and visiting professor at Imperial College London. Dr. Wears is a national expert in human factors engineering and safety science in medicine. Other members of the committee will be Stanley Caplan, MS, CHFP, of Usability Associates, and Keith Karn, PhD of the University of Rochester, both experts in human factors and usability testing. The results of this research project will impact the safety profile of future medical devices and computer applications used in the emergency department.