UNC School of Medicine

Thursday, June 26, 2014

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Details

Key presenters will include:

• Lawrence B. Marks, MD: Professor and Chief of the Department of Radiation Oncology at UNC.
  He is a recognized expert in the treatment of patients with breast and lung cancer.
  His primary research focus has been aimed at improving the therapeutic ratio of radiation therapy,
  largely through reducing the normal tissue effects of radiation.
  He has conducted several prospective clinical trials to better understand radiation-induced lung
  and heart injury for patients receiving radiation to the chest.
  This work is currently funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
  He also has a long-standing interest in quality and safety as well.
  He trained initially as a chemical engineer and spent some time at DuPont Chemical Company;
  where he was exposed to some of their early efforts addressing industrial quality and safety.
  Within radiation oncology, he is a national leader in the area of quality and safety, with a
  particular focus on human-factors engineering. He studied the frequency and causes of “human-errors”
  in the radiation oncology clinic. This work has spearheaded the implementation of systems aimed to
  reduce such errors. He has published and lectured about this sensitive issue (e.g. to the FDA),
  and have served on several national panels addressing this issue (e.g. National Quality Forum).
  He serves on the Board of Directors of ASTRO (The American Society for Radiation Oncology;
  the leading professional organization in the field), as the Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs and Quality.
  In this capacity, he helps oversee efforts nationally to improve quality and safety within radiation oncology
  (e.g. helping to create a national registry to report radiation therapy errors, and defining best practices).
  He has helped to lead the ongoing simulation-based research program at UNC and have an ongoing grant from the
  CDC to use ‘Lean’ principles to improve care for patients with breast cancer.
• Bhisham Chera, MD: the leader of the head and neck radiation oncology program at UNC-Chapel Hill.
  His major areas of research are related to the clinical outcomes of head and neck cancer patients.
  Specifically he is interested in the normal tissue toxicities experienced by head and neck cancer patients,
  quality of life, and de-escalation of chemoradiotherapy for HPV associated oropharyngeal carcinoma.
  With regards to quality of life, he has participated in the NCI Symptom Management & Quality of Life Clinical
  Trials Planning Meeting. He is the young investigator of this working committee for which I will help to identify
  a standard core set of patient-reported symptoms and/or health-related quality of life domains to be assessed
  in clinical trials with head and neck cancer patients. Furthermore, he is the Director of Patient Safety and
  Quality in our department, and with this role he focuses on translating quality assurance/control/improvement
  principles and methodologies from high reliability organizations to radiation oncology (e.g. process/human
  factors engineering and Lean methodologies). He has written and lectured extensively on these topics.
• Robert Adams, EdD: Assistant Professor and Director of Medical Dosimetry and Radiation
  Therapy Education Programs of the Department of Radiation Oncology at The University of North Carolina.
  His expertise is in computer based education, program evaluation, and Lean processes as they apply to
  clinical health services. His primary research focus has been aimed at improving patient safety processes
  through application of Lean techniques, program evaluation, and developing computer based medical dosimetry
  education programs. He has conducted several studies to better understand components of patient safety in
  clinical radiation oncology practice, in addition to developing computer based medical dosimetry education
  programs. The latter is currently funded by a grant from the National Cancer Institute (R25). Within radiation
  oncology, he is a national leader in radiation therapy and medical dosimetry patient safety. He studied the
  “Comfort Levels of Radiation Therapists and Medical Dosimetrists to Report Errors: A national study”. The
  data has been published nationally and presented to international audiences. The study is being replicated
  in Canada and Great Britain. He has both published and lectured on patient safety.
• Lukasz Mazur, PhD: Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at UNC.
  He is a recognized expert in the Healthcare Engineering Management with a primary research focus on
  understanding how organizations and individuals learn and implement continuous quality and patient safety
  efforts. His current efforts are focused on understanding the relationship between mental workload and
  individual performance during human-machine interactions in simulated environments. In prior efforts, he
  (with colleagues) successfully studied the behavioral factors associated with medication delivery errors
  (at Montana State), the behavioral factors associated with the acceptance of safety culture (at NC State),
  and the association between workload, the environment and human performance (at UNC). At UNC, he has successfully
  created a simulation laboratory where he has systematically conducted over 200 hours of experiments to address
  this issue. His work has been well regarded as evidenced by the receipt of several awards (e.g., Academy
  of Outstanding Faculty Engaged in Extension Award; ‘Eschenbach’ Best Paper of the Year Award from the
  American Society of Engineering Management; UNC Innovation Center Award), publications in leading journals
  (e.g. Healthcare Engineering Management; International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering;
  Journal of Healthcare Engineering; International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Physics, and Biology;
  Practical Radiation Oncology, etc.), presentations at international meetings (e.g. Industrial and Systems
  Engineering Research Conference [ISERC]; Applied Human Factors Engineering [AHFE] Conference; American
  Society for Radiation Oncology [ASTRO]; Institute for Healthcare Improvement [IHI]; etc.) and positions
  on national/international quality/safety-related committees (e.g. board member of the Society of Engineering
  and Management Systems [SEMS]; development of accreditation program for ASTRO; etc.).
• High level agenda (start at 6 PM; June 26th):
  1. Introductions and logistics (Lukasz Mazur: 15min)
  2. Towards high reliability and value creation: UNC Vision (Lawrence Marks, 15min)
  3. Quality and Safety Committee: Leading change (Bhisham Chera, 15min)
  4. Tour of the department (Robert Adams: 30-40min)

Q/A session (until 8PM).

Directions: http://www.med.unc.edu/radonc/patient/map

• 1. We will meet in the lobby (directions provided in the link above).
  2. No pictures will be allowed (potential exposure to patient private information).
  3. We will grant permissions in certain areas.

Projects showcased, included:

1. Computerizing motor intelligence tests
   – See how graduate students are
   attempting to validate a virtual reality-based version of a simple motor
   intelligence task by using measures of human muscle activity.
2. Mind control with brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) – Type letters and
   control a simulated flight just by thinking. How can this technology be used
   to help people with and without severe motor disabilities? “Come control a
   Toy Robot with Your Mind.”
3. Multitasking assessment – See how graduate students are using VR to
   understand how physical exertion influences cognitive task performance with
   information presented for sight and hearing.
4. Wearable sensor design and application – Wireless Body Area Network
   (WBAN) communications are being designed and prototyped for use on, near,
   and around the human body. How can this technology be used to monitor and
   track stroke patients’ upper-limb motion in home-based rehabilitation? “Come
   experience a low-power, miniaturized body sensor.”

Daniels Hall, Room 401

Thursday, May 15, 2014

5:30 PM

Details

• Next month (5/15) the Industrial & Systems Engineering Department at NC
  State will host the local IIE and AEE Chapters in a tour of the Department’s
  Ergonomics Lab. The tour will include a reception and overview presentation
  of the Ergonomics Program Area as well as student demonstrations of several
  lab-based research projects. Projects to be showcased, include:
• 1. Computerizing motor intelligence tests
     – See how graduate students are
     attempting to validate a virtual reality-based version of a simple motor
     intelligence task by using measures of human muscle activity. (Daniels Hall,
     Room 475)
  2. Mind control with brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) – Type letters and
     control a simulated flight just by thinking. How can this technology be used
     to help people with and without severe motor disabilities? “Come control a
     Toy Robot with Your Mind.” (Daniels Hall, Room 457)
  3. Multitasking assessment – See how graduate students are using VR to
     understand how physical exertion influences cognitive task performance with
     information presented for sight and hearing. (Daniels Hall, Room 457)
  4. Wearable sensor design and application – Wireless Body Area Network
     (WBAN) communications are being designed and prototyped for use on, near,
     and around the human body. How can this technology be used to monitor and
     track stroke patients’ upper-limb motion in home-based rehabilitation? “Come
     experience a low-power, miniaturized body sensor.” (Daniels Hall, Room 457)
• The tour will start at 5:30p with a reception and presentation in Daniels
  Hall, Room 401 on the main NC State campus. The overview will last until 6pm
  and student research project demonstrations will begin at 6:10p in Daniels
  Hall, Rooms 457 and 475.
• Due to Ergonomics lab space, the tour capacity is limited to 30 persons.
  Please RSVP to Haleh Bryne (hsbyrne@ncsu.edu)
  or Joe Davis (Joe@DrJoeDavisPE.com)
  at your earliest convenience for participation in the tour.