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Examining the impacts of sociotechnical systems factors on safety in clinical systems.

Hospital

WHAT DO WE DO?

The Safety, Equity, & Design (SED) lab is directed by Dr. Myrtede Alfred, an assistant professor in the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. The lab examines sociotechnical systems factors contributing to adverse events in clinical systems. Complementing the social determinants of health framework, the research lab also leverages human factors and systems engineering to examine clinical systems’ contributions to racial/ethnic disparities in health outcomes. We are currently conducting AHRQ and NSERC funded research investigating maternal health disparities, remote patient monitoring, and retained foreign objects.  

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Equity-Oriented Design Processes and Evaluation of
Digital Health Technologies for Black Communities Beyond
Usability: Scoping Review

Myesha A. Senior, Kejah Bascon, Myrtede Alfred, and Enid Montague.

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Applying a Patient Journey Mapping Approach to Understand Maternal Care Patient Journeys: A Pilot Study

Hicks N, Tully K, Goodier C, Madathil S, Logan A, Alfred M

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18 Hardwiring human factors into healthcare: engineering solutions at the point of care

Myrtede Alfred, Komal Mazhar, Tiziana Rivera

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Dismantling Discrimination in Healthcare Research and Practice Through Human Factors Approaches

Eleanore Rae Scheer, Rupa S Valdez, Bethany R Lowndes, Maurita T Harris, Myrtede Alfred, Hanna J Barton

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Efficient detection of stigmatizing language in electronic health records via in-context learning: comparative analysis and validation study

Hongbo Chen, Myrtede Alfred, Eldan Cohen

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What Does It Mean for LLMs to Be Empathetic_A Co-design Study of Patient Trust in LLM-Based Chronic Care for Heart Failure

Xinyi Celine Liu, Pedro Elkind Velmovitsky, Dina Kanaan, Raima Lohani, Vina Mohabir, David Wiljer, Joseph Cafazzo, Shaina Raza, Broderick Bellard, Shumit Saha, Myrtede Alfred, and Quynh Pham.

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Integrating equity into incident reporting and patient concerns systems: a critical interpretive synthesis

Joanne Goldman, Leahora Rotteau, Lisha Lo, Brian M Wong, Ayelet Kuper, Allison Kooijman, Maitreya Coffey, Saleem Razack, Shail Rawal, Michael Palomo, Myrtede Alfred, Marie Pinard, Andrew Milroy, Carol Pauline Anderson, Arvin Minocha, Patricia Trbovich

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Spatial and racial/ethnic variation in the prevalence of cesarean delivery in a South Carolina medical center

Jeffrey T Howard, Sam Lawton, Dulaney Wilson, Amartha Gore, Latha Hebbar, Christine Morton, Christopher Goodier, Myrtede Alfred

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Evaluating the Usability of a Mobile App for Pediatric Preoperative Preparation

Michelle Lai, Myrtede Alfred

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Systems factors contributing to racial/ethnic disparities in maternal health: a systematic review

Tosin B Akintunde, Myesha A Senior, Ayaba Logan, Myrtede C Alfred

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Latest Publications

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Latest News

Human Factors Research Featured in Hospital News (June 2026)

 

Our collaborative work with William Osler Health System on integrating human factors engineering into acute care was featured in Hospital News. The article highlights how human factors principles can improve patient safety, workflow, and quality improvement across healthcare settings.

Professor Alfred leads a Connaught-funded initiative advancing modelling approaches to address health inequities and improve outcomes for racialized patients in Canadian hospitals

Professor Alfred leads a new Academic Practice Partnership between Centre for Healthcare Engineering and William Osler Health System

Professor Alfred is awarded the Black Research Network's 2022/2023 IGNITE grant

Michelle Lai is interviewed with finalists of the Mobile Health App Competition | HFES Healthcare Symposium

Professor Alfred's Skule Lunch and Learn: Improving Safety & Equity in Healthcare through Human Factors

Professor Alfred features in UofT Engineering news - U of T Engineering professor investigates maternal health disparities experienced by racialized patients in U.S. clinical systems

Professor Alfred is a panelist on Engineering Resilient Healthcare Systems: Lessons from the Pandemic

Interview with Myrtede Alfred | #HCS2021Symposium | Bonus Episode HF Cast interview

@ 2022 SED Lab

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