The response to this was, “Isn’t that a bit idealist?” I was no Greta Thunberg, so I probably just looked blank and that ended the interview. My feelings were piqued and on leaving, a response then formed in my head, “If I can’t be idealist when I’m 18, when can I?”. Needless to say, I didn’t get the scholarship.

I don’t know the intention behind the question the middle-aged white man posed to a young woman keen to start a career in engineering. Maybe he wanted me to show more fight and conviction in my choice of career, or maybe he had become disillusioned with his own work. I’ll never know, but I’m very glad that that comment didn’t deter me from working in the medical field. I have spent around 16 years working on products linked to healthcare. First as an engineer/designer and then as a human factors professional specialising in medical devices. And while I can get frustrated at red tape or feel that progress is slow, I am always glad that I have chosen to work in this field. I can’t claim to have made any major discoveries, but I do like to think that my input has been overall for good.

For example, since the pandemic started, Inspired Usability has provided input into guidance on usability testing of Rapidly Manufactured Ventilator Systems for Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors, provided final human factors submission guidance for a novel device for cancer detection, worked on the human factors activities for new drug products that include a new cancer treatment and biosimilars for pediatric and adult patients and conducted human factors studies providing advice on 4 new drug delivery platforms that are not yet on the market with a range of benefits to end users (as well as adapting to working under Covid-19 restrictions).

On Sunday, I was reminded of the man in the interviews and his comment when I sat in the Yorkshire Showground Pavilion after receiving my first Covid-19 vaccine and waiting for 15 minutes to pass by before going home. I felt humbled by all the other people who had chosen to work in a field that can truly make a difference. I felt humbled by the fact that over 100,000 people had sat in that same waiting area before me. Because there are so many amazing feats of medicine, science, engineering, human factors, logistics and more that brought me to that waiting room. Of course, there were people who had the foresight to start planning on how to make a vaccine in record time when needed and the massive ramp-up in production and logistics but there was also all the work that went into the very running of the vaccination centres around the country.

My own customer journey was an amazing piece of human factors, from booking my slot on my phone based on my date-of-birth and postcode, driving up to the Showground with precision way marking, parking guided by expertly choreographed volunteers, hand sanitising, double identification and check-lists and finally the warm smile of a proud volunteer pointing out the golden balloons with the numbers 100,000.

• Medical Device Regulatory Support
• Anatomy & anthropometry in human activities
• Product design and consumer ergonomics
• Risk assessments – various work situations
• Task analysis
• Usability assessment

and agree to abide by the CIEHF’s code of conduct. You can learn more about the CIEHF and the practice of ergonomics and human factors on the CIEHF website.

Journey towards becoming a registered Human Factors Consultancy

2017 has been a busy year for both Inspired Usability and Human Factors. The MHRA launched their Human Factors guidance (read my article here) given more guidance for the Human Factors activities required for CE marking.

At Inspired Usability we have been involved with a surprising breadth of projects. Some of the highlights include:

• Seeing the inside of a patient’s abdomen during in 3D during a contextual inquiry for a device to be used during robotic surgery
• The breadth and insight from talking to healthcare professionals about a specific surgical procedure
• Actionable insights gained from formative usability studies
• Positive feedback from the FDA on summative study protocols
• Having my brain scanned as part of an Innovate UK funded project (you can see the film created by Radar Film here
• Carrying out the review of legacy devices

2018 looks to be another exciting year. We look forward to learning about your Human Factors needs for medical device and combination product developments in the coming year.