A day with the Human Factors teams at the University Health Network in Toronto. I gave my final talk of this trip, which seemed to resonate well with the work going on here. I also had fascinating and thought-provoking meetings with many members of the team. They have an enviable set-up here, with excellent links into the hospital, good links into the university, and great connections with industry – both national and international. So they have opportunities to do good research that has a direct and immediate impact on practice. Much of their funding is industrial, and they are generally more concerned with practical impact than theoretical development, which would not go down so well in the UK funding system, but seems to work very well here. I am envious of the apparent ease with which they can engage with, and inform and be informed by, hospital functions such as procurement and incident reporting. It is an interesting illustration of the way that funding sources, physical location, organisational structures and history (a group emerging from biomedical engineering rather than HCI) influences the culture and practices of the group.
We all had dinner at Bannock (Canadian Comfort Food, apparently – sounds like a pretty good description to me). And it snowed (though it's actually rather slushy; will need to wear walking shoes tomorrow because my smarter shoes are now wet through...)
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