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HUMAN FACTORS SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP

ATA Human Factors Special Interest Group Meeting Summary
ATA's Annual Meeting, April 28, 2003
Orlando, Florida

Nineteen people attended the inaugural meeting of the Human Factors Special Interest Group (HF SIG). Sixteen signed up to join the SIG officially: three were from commercial companies, four were military, and there were nine representatives of four universities.

The meeting began with an introduction session for all attendees to describe their interests, followed by a review of previous and on-going human factors activities associated with ATA.

There had been informal group meetings on human factors during the past three ATA annual meetings, organized by several people including Dr. Sessions. The group was delighted by the keynote speakers who emphasized the importance of human factors in telemedicine.

Historically, the first informal meeting of the group was at the 2000 ATA Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona. Subsequent informal meetings were held at ATA 2001 in Fort Lauderdale, as well as ATA 2002 in Los Angeles. Discussions focused on such issues as how to integrate technology with clinical cultures, incentives and disincentives for technology users, the perceived costs and benefits of medical technologies, as well as business process reengineering.

Dr. Bangert also described an ongoing effort to produce a book on the Human Factors of Telemedicine, which was a subject for discussion at the last two informal meetings of the SIG. A number of SIG participants are also contributors to this book, which will be edited by Drs. Bangert and Doktor.

Below are the highlights of this year's discussions:

1. Goals and priorities.
   The initial draft of SIG goals was revised based on the discussion. (list is included as a separate document).
   
   
2. Community building activities.
   - Develop a webpage with ATA that capitalizes on the ATA initiatives of addressing concerns of telemedicine consumers through Human Factors.
   - Develop a SIG member profile with each member contributing a paragraph for HF problems encountered, HF efforts in telemedicine projects, and personal webpage links.
   - Start a listserv with the assistance of ATA.
   
   
3. Chair election procedures.
   The group reached a consensus to hold an annual election to share the leadership of the group and to build a strong HF SIG.
   - A nominating process will start soon so a new Chair would be elected prior to the next ATA annual meeting.
   - To ensure continuity, the chair will serve in three different capacities: (1) Chair-elect, who will also function as Co-chair to step in when the Chair is not able to, (2) Chair, and (3) Immediate Past Chair, who will lead nominating and other SIG governance efforts. So the person entrust with the Chair position essentially will serve the SIG for three years.

   Note: Subsequent to the annual meeting, ATA developed an election guideline. In general, the Chair, appointed by ATA, serves a two-year term. The Vice Chair/Chair Elect may be elected to serve for two years. It is assumed that the Vice Chair will become the Chair after this period of time.

4. SIG activities.
   The group discussed several projects/committee activities:
   - The Human Factors book project, led by Drs. Bangert and Doktor.
   - Short-courses on Human Factors offered at ATA annual meeting, to be led by Dr. Wendy Rogers. It was suggested that the short-course should target practitioners as opposed to fellow HF SIG members. One approach is to ask ATA to market the course as presentation of success stories.
   
   
5. Issues, to be communicated to ATA governing body.
   - Cross-cutting areas with other SIGs and coordination with other SIGs.
   - Annual meeting research program arrangement to avoid schedule conflicts for those presentations related to human factors.
   - Web-casting of ATA annual meeting (to use telemedicine technology, possibly even supported by ATA annual meeting sponsors).

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