Inspired by the work of the Clinical Human Factors Group and produced by the award-winning team from Horizon, A&E doctor Kevin Fong finds out how doctors can avoid making mistakes in the high-pressure, high-stakes world of the operating theatre. He sets out to learn how other professionals make life and death decisions under pressure – from airline pilots facing emergencies, to the Fire Service dealing with lethal blazes and to the world of Formula One pit crews.
The programme explores how learning from these fields, in particular the contribution from ergonomics and humans factors, are helping to make surgery safer.
Murray Anderson-Wallace contributed to the research for this programme as did many colleagues from the Clinical Human Factors Group (CHFG) whose work we have supported for the past three years.