Abigail R. Wooldridge was presented the inaugural Robert L. Wears Early Career Award
10/14/2021 William K Gillespie
For outstanding research contributions, as well as years of service, Abigail R. Wooldridge was presented the inaugural Robert L. Wears Early Career Award by the Health Care Technical Group of The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
Written by William K Gillespie
Abigail Wooldridge
For outstanding research contributions, as well as years of service, Abigail R. Wooldridge was presented the inaugural Robert L. Wears Early Career Award by the Health Care Technical Group of The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
The new Robert L. Wears early career awardaims to highlight the achievements of academics and practitioners in the first six years from graduation.
This award is named in honor of Robert L. “Bob” Wears, MD, MS, PhD, for his groundbreaking work in human factors in healthcare. Professor Wooldridge remembers him fondly as a generous mentor with time for her when she was a first-year graduate student.
Wooldridge cites Wears's final, posthumous book, Still Not Safe: Patient Safety and the Middle-Managing of American Medicine, as an important contribution to the literature. Published in 2019, the book's message still rings true, as medical accidents remain the third most common cause of death in America, after heart disease and cancer.
Wooldridge says, "It's very special to have won the inaugural award... given that my overall goal has always been to use engineering to make health care better and safer, this is tremendous for me."
Since 1957, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society sponsors meetings and publications to promote the exchange of knowledge, to advance human factors education and programs, and to strengthen relationships among members and supporters.