Sebastiano Bagnara

Are hospitals becoming high reliability organizations

High Reliability Organizations (HROs) are complex systems in which many accidents and adverse events that could occur within those systems or at the interfaces with other systems are actually avoided or prevented. Many organizations in high-risk industries have successfully implemented HRO approaches. In recent years, initiatives have been undertaken aimed at transforming hospitals into HROs. Actually, despite some improvements, these initiatives have not shown the expected results. In this paper, we discuss the possible reasons for such outcomes. We will show that, when compared with traditional HROs, hospitals are undoubtedly high-risk organizations, but have specificities and experience systemic socio-organizational barriers that make them difficult to transform into HROs.

Theories and practice in interaction design

Introduction, S. Bagnara and G. Crampton Smith Activity Activity Theory and Expansive Design, Y. Engestrom Activity: Analysis, Design, and Management, T.P. Moran Virtual Environments and Haptic Interfaces, M. Bergamasco Emotion The Feeling of Values: For a Phenomenological Theory of Affectivity, R. De Monticelli The Contagion of Emotions, P. Marti Designers and Users: Two Perspectives on Emotion and Design, D.A. Norman and A. Ortony Situatedness Situatedness Revisited: The Role of Cognition and Emotion, C. Ciborra More Than One Way of Knowing, G. Crampton Smith and P. Tabor Community Participation and Community, C. Goodwin Participation in Interaction Design: Actors and Artifacts in Interaction, P. Ehn Conversation From Conversation to Interaction Via Behavioral Communication: For a Semiotic Design of Objects, Environments, and Behaviors, C. Castelfranchi From Function to Dialog, M. Mattioda and F. Vercellone Interface Design and Persuasive Intelligent User Interfaces, O. Stock, M. Guerini, and M. Zancanaro Memories Remembering Together: Some Thoughts on How Direct or Virtual Social Interactions Influence Memory Processes, G. Leone Memory for Future Actions, M.A. Brandimonte Community Memory as a Process: Reflections and Indications for Design, G. De Michelis Market Bad Design by Design? Economics Meets Other Types of Interactions, L. Picci From Interaction Costs to Interaction Design, M. Franzini Interaction Design: Six True Stories, B. Moggridge In Search of a Framework Interaction as an Ecology: Building a Framework, S.H. Poggenpohl Five Lenses: Towards a Toolkit for Interaction Design, T. Erickson A Trickster Approach to Interaction Design, I. Hosoe

Individuation and diversity: the need for idiographic HCI

Nowadays, our life is characterised by an increasing complexity and variety in the use of technology: highly idiosyncratic experiences in technology use have become the rule rather than exceptions. Such ‘normal’ variety has an impact on the field of human–computer interaction (HCI) by posing a new challenge, that of ‘individuation’, i.e. passing from research and design for the ‘average user’, to research and design for ‘individuals’. We maintain that HCI is in the middle of such a transition, and that it should actively develop proper means to address the complexity of idiosyncratic uses of technology. Such a transition will be marked by the complementary between ‘nomothetic’ and ‘idiographic’ approaches.

Patient safety – an old and a new issue

Today, patient safety is considered as one of the most prominent issues in healthcare. Mass media very often insist upon it. Medical malpractices, adverse events in hospitals, human medical errors and their negative outcomes have become hot topics in magazines, newspapers and TV worldwide. The large press coverage and the diffusion of people’s concerns have been developed quite recently; say, no more than 10 years ago. Consequently, patient safety is often, though wrongly, perceived as a new issue and, somehow, this perception corresponds to the reality. Indeed, patient safety is rooted in the practice and theory of medicine from its very origin. Every healthcare professional knows Hippocrates’ principle: ‘primum non nocere’ (first, do no harm). The ethics and practice of every physician should be (and, hopefully, are) based on this principle. However, though embedded since the early days in the medical profession, patient safety was not of much concern for the people, notwithstanding they, sooner or later, inevitably, become patients. Although cases of supposed malpractice (and, sometimes, of severe punishments of wrongdoers) were frequently reported during the centuries, the awareness that medical professional activity might actually harm patients was practically unknown until the 19th century. Indeed, in 1867, Florence Nightingale, the founder of nursing science, in Notes on hospital, reported that: ‘. . . the actual mortality in hospitals, especially in those of large crowded cities, is very much higher than any calculation founded on the mortality of the same class of diseases among patient treated out of hospitals lead us to expect’ (quoted from Vincent 2006, p. 3). Some years earlier, Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis had already confirmed this statement by discovering that puerperal fever was caused by infecting particles on the hands of medical students and doctors contaminated in the autopsy room. His observations went against current scientific opinion, not to say, the opinion of medical doctors, who were not at all eager to admit that they caused many deaths. As one may notice, however, the issue of patient safety was still debated among healthcare professionals. The general public, in those years (and for many years to come) was more fascinated by the successes and discoveries in medicine, rather than by its faults.

Health in restructuring

Elisabeth ARmGARtH (Ericsson HRM, Stockholm/Sweden) Sebastiano BAGnARA (U Sassari, Alghero/Italy) Anna-Liisa ElO (FIOH, Helsinki & U Tampere/Finland) Steve JEffERyS (WLRI, Metropolitan U, London/UK) Catelijne JOlInG (TNO, Hoofddorp/The Netherlands) Karl KuHn (BAuA, Dortmund/Germany) Karina nIElSEn (NRCWE, Copenhagen/Denmark) Jan POPmA (Sinzheimer I, U Amsterdam/The Netherlands) Nikolai ROGOvSKy (ILO, Geneva/Switzerland) Benjamin SAHlER (ANACT, Limoges/France) Greg tHOmSOn (UNISON, London/UK) Claude Emmanuel tRIOmPHE (ASTREES, Paris/France) Maria WIDERSZAl-BAZyl (CIOP-PIB, Warsaw/Poland) European Expert Group on Health in Restructuring Thomas KIESElBACH (IPG, U Bremen/Germany)

L'innovazione organizzativa: umanesimo e tecnologia

Nel 2020, un lavoratore su tre svolgera un’attivita creativa. Nel mondo ci sara un miliardo di persone in piu. La Cina sara il maggiore acquirente di automobili. Le donne saranno al centro del sistema sociale e ne gestiranno il potere. I chip saranno grandi come neuroni. Le auto non avranno necessita del guidatore. L’istruzione mutera in formazione permanente. Estetica ed etica diventeranno fattori di sviluppo economico. L’ingegneria genetica fara parte della vita quotidiana.

Segmenti target per la nuova Tv

This study addresses TV innovation as for the impact on users’ behaviours. It maintains that TV audience behaviours reflect the tension between habits and tradition and the new ways of user interaction. The study comprises a state of art based on the relevant pertinent literature and a qualitative research on users, conducted through in-depth interviews. Results showed technological scenarios where users adopt diverse interaction styles, various degrees of exploratory behaviours, and different levels of acceptance of the technological innovations. They look for and watch markedly different contents.

Usability Issues when Applying Virtual Reality in Education and Training: A Case Study

Virtual Reality (VR) is an innovative technology that has found valuable application in the field of education. However, evaluation of the effectiveness of virtual environments, especially for training and education, is still an open issue. The study described here was performed within the European SAFE Vecwit project (Virtual Environment for Construction Workers Instruction and Training), aimed at the development of a virtual environment for the enhancement of risk perception and the consequent reduction of occupational injuries in construction workplaces. An experiment was carried out to assess systems usability and educational effectiveness of the environment. The evaluation highlights some relevant issues for VR environment design.