#HCS2019 Bonus Interview with Tara Cohen

As a recent Master's graduate student in Human Factors, I am passionate about improving the quality of life for people by targeting the areas they themselves deem most important. This can be through the domain of healthcare, by helping the professionals who help patients through effective interventions that ultimately enhance the efficiency of procedures and reduce the stress within the operating room. This can be through the domain of accessibility, by improving the usability of tools that end users ultimately rely on to perform certain activities on the computer. This can be through training, by running simulations of certain complex systems (e.g. the National Airspace System). Whatever the domain, the goal is still the same: To be an advocate for the end user by shifting the spotlight away from technology and focusing once more on who will actually be using it.

Tara Cohen, PhD, is the Director of Surgical Safety and Human Factors Research in the Department of Surgery, Director of Simulation Research in the Department of Simulation and Interprofessional Education, and a research scientist and associate professor in the Department of Surgery. In 2017, she earned her doctorate in human factors from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. Her research interests involve proactive approaches to patient safety through potential threat identification. Dr. Cohen has published her work in a number of peer-reviewed journals including Anaesthesia, the American Journal for Medical Quality, the Journal for Patient Safety, the Journal for Medical Systems and the Journal for Healthcare Quality. She has also given a number of presentations at both national and international meetings. She currently serves as the Secretary for the Society of Surgical Ergonomics and is the Co-Chair for the International Symposium on Human Factors in Health Care.