# Human Factors and Systems Integration in High Technology Surgery (HF-SIgHTS)

> **NIH AHRQ R01** · MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA · 2020 · $400,000

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Surgery remains a high-risk endeavor, with upwards of 4000 “never” events per year, and multiple additional
opportunities for accidental injuries. Though new surgical technologies are intended to benefit patients, they
can introduce unexpected new complexities and error modes for which operating room (OR) teams and host
organizations may be unprepared. One of the most ubiquitous exemplars of high-technology surgery is robotic
assisted surgery (RAS), which has demonstrated benefit, but also introduces a range of new challenges that
place additional stresses on communication, technical and procedural knowledge within the team, and the
available space in the operating room. We will evaluate multiple interventions to address these specific
challenges, testing new approaches to teamwork training, task design, and workspace management both
individually and in combination, at 4 different hospital sites. The effects will be evaluated at individual (use of
intervention; workload), process (surgical durations and disruptions) and systems (complications and safety
culture) levels. Qualitative interviews and observations will be used to understand the implementation and
spread of the interventions. Finally, data from the 680 planned surgical observations – the largest direct
observation study ever conducted – will be used to model accident causation by exploring the mechanism by
which small innocuous process problems concatenate into more serious risks and eventual injuries. This will
fundamentally improve our understanding of how innovative surgical technologies can be safely deployed and
integrated within complex clinical work systems.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9982269
- **Project number:** 5R01HS026491-03
- **Recipient organization:** MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
- **Principal Investigator:** Jennifer Tash Anger
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** AHRQ
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $400,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-30 → 2023-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9982269

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9982269, Human Factors and Systems Integration in High Technology Surgery (HF-SIgHTS) (5R01HS026491-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9982269. Licensed CC0.

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