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Faculty and Student Teams Program

questioning Project Descriptions

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Risk and Decision Sciences Group

Requesting applications from science or engineering faculty members at institutions serving students underrepresented in science, engineering, mathematics and technology.

Project Description

Understanding the causes, frequency, and consequences of medical errors is an essential part of improving patient safety. To develop this understanding, an analysis of medical incident reports using PNNL developed data mining/visualization tools will be performed to identify potential errors. There are currently a number of Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) funded research projects analyzing data on medical errors and mistakes. However, none of these currently examine these incidents in the context of healthcare processes. Analyzing reports in the context of the processes will provide risk information (e.g., potential contributors and context for errors, frequency of errors, and potential consequences). In addition, if successful, it will provide an approach for automatically relating incident reports to process steps to support identification of process changes for patient safety improvement. The research will require incident records to be ingested in a form to support application of data mining/visualization tools, development of automated process maps, and analysis of the data. A report of the findings will also be required.

Applicants Responsibilities and Relationship to Project

Applicants will receive support under the Department of Energy Faculty Student Team Research Program (FaST) to work collaboratively with the project research team at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for up to 10 weeks during the year starting in June of 2006. Summer and academic year visits to Pacific Northwest will be scheduled by mutual agreement between the Systems Risk and Analysis Group and the successful applicant. Ideally faculty will work at Pacific Northwest on the project for 10 weeks during the summer in the first year. Faculty will be expected to identify students from their campus to participate in the Undergraduate Research Participation programs offered by the Department of Energy at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Ideally Faculty will provide mentorship and/or advising support to students during the summer research activities. It is expected that the Faculty member will become an integral part of the research team working on this project and will support the project through the academic year on her or his campus.

Qualifications of Ideal Candidate

Faculty: Specific capabilities required include expertise in data analysis, statistics, and database systems. Willing to work at PNNL for ten weeks in Summer 2006.
Student: Working towards a BS or BA. Works well in collaboration with faculty, other students, and researchers. Willing to work at PNNL for ten weeks in Summer 2006.

Support and Financial Commitments

See Financial Information.

For More Information contact:

Royace Aiken, Program Manager
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
E-mail: royace.aikin@pnl.gov
(509) 375-6929
http://science-ed.pnl.gov/index.stm

Jonathan Young
Systems Risk and Analysis Group
Environmental Technology Division
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Box 999 , K7-97
Richland , WA 99352
(509) 375-4510
jonathan.young@pnl.gov