SUMMARY
The research focus of Susan Hallbeck, Ph.D., is to improve staff wellness, health care ergonomics, medical device ergonomics, teamwork and lean health care systems. She is a certified professional ergonomist and licensed professional engineer in industrial engineering with a specialty in human factors and ergonomics. Dr. Hallbeck has worked with clinical faculty and staff in surgery, emergency medicine, internal medicine and anesthesiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, at the VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System and, presently, at Mayo Clinic. She is an emerita professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, an adjunct professor at Arizona State University and an affiliate professor at Iowa State University, all in engineering.
Currently, Dr. Hallbeck directs the Human Factors Engineering Lab in the Mayo Clinic Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery. She is a professor of health care systems engineering and a consultant in both surgery and health care delivery research. Her projects have included the design of laparoscopic tools; the ergonomic evaluation of open, laparoscopic and robot-assisted surgery, especially focusing on postures and risk associated with those postures during surgery; interventions to mitigate those postures; the creation of ergonomic guidelines for the operating room; and the addition of microbreaks during surgery. Previously she also performed ergonomic evaluation of intubation; lean engineering and ergonomic redesign of resuscitation cart medication drawers; ergonomic evaluation of central venous catheterization; teamwork during code blue; positioning of prone patients for spinal surgery; and evaluation of personal monitors for home health use and remote monitoring of those devices by Mayo personnel.
Focus areas
- Surgical teams in the operating room. Dr. Hallbeck is evaluating the usability of tools and the impact of single-port laparoscopic tools versus conventional laparoscopic surgical tools on workload.
- Patient and surgical team safety. Additionally, she is investigating the effect of microbreaks on surgical team fatigue, as well as ways to enable more-effective teamwork among surgical team members. She also is studying how to create a better working environment to reduce surgical errors. Her research is intended to benefit both patients and operating room personnel, making surgical outcomes better while maintaining or enhancing staff wellness.
- Research and design of medical devices and systems. Dr. Hallbeck is involved in designing better laparoscopic surgical tools and systems (including training), as well as improving home monitoring systems and enhancing patient care.
Significance to patient care
The complex and demanding clinical environment can be better understood — thus making patient care easier to deliver — when a wide range of human factors and ergonomic concerns are considered that directly and indirectly impact human performance. The field of human factors and ergonomics applies scientific knowledge about human strengths and limitations to the design of systems in the work environment. The goal is to ensure a safe and satisfying performance for both patient and clinician. The overall goal of human factors and ergonomics practice is to create a system in which the correct thing to do is also the easiest and most natural choice.
Rather than falling into the trap of uncritically focusing on human error and searching for individuals to blame, Dr. Hallbeck's research attempts to identify the factors contributing to substandard performance and find ways to better detect, recover from or preclude problems that could result in harm to patients or clinicians. Starting with the individual characteristics of health care professionals such as their knowledge, skills, and sensory or physical capabilities, a hierarchy of system factors is examined. This includes the nature of the work performed, the physical environment, human-system interfaces, the organizational or social environment, management, and external factors.
Professional highlights
- President, Society of Surgical Ergonomics, 2023-2024.
- Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Scientific Director of Health Care Systems Engineering, Mayo Clinic, 2015-2023.
- Special editor, The American Journal of Surgery, 2022-present.
- International Ergonomics Association.
- Fellow, 2021-present.
- Committee chair, Ergonomics Quality in Design, 2006-2007.
- Editorial board, Human Factors in Health Care, 2020-present.
- National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
- Council member, National Occupational Research Agenda, and Healthcare and Social Assistance industry sector, 2017-present.
- Board of advisors, Midwest Center for Occupational Health and Safety, University of Minnesota, 2015-present.
- Board of advisors, Heartland Center for Occupational Health and Safety, University of Iowa, 1999-2013.
- Editorial board member, Applied Ergonomics, 2012-present.
- Associate editor, IISE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering, 2009-2021.
- Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
- President, 2019-2020.
- Executive council.
- 2018-2021.
- 2015-2018.
- 2012-2015.
- 2008-2011.
- Fellow, 2014.
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
- Emerita professor, Engineering, 2012-present.
- Professor, Industrial Engineering, with a courtesy appointment in surgery at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, 1989-2012.
- Fellow, Executive Leadership in Academic Technology & Engineering, 2017-2018.
- Associate editor, Human Factors, 2012-2015.
- Engineering lead, VA Engineering Resource Center, VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System, 2009-2011.
- Researcher, The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research, 2008.
- Researcher, Swedish National Institute for Working Life, 2001-2005.