Dr Al Ross

Professor

Health, Education, Policing and Sciences

I am a Chartered Ergonomist and Psychologist and Associate Professor in Human Factors at Staffordshire University where I am course lead for the part-time distance learning MSc in Human Factors for Patient Safety.

Before applying HF to health and social care I was the first UK data manager for the CIRAS confidential near miss reporting system in the railways. This was initially a pilot with Scotrail drivers and was subsequently rolled out to around 70,000 staff after the Ladbroke Grove rail crash by the then transport minister, John Prescott. I have also previously worked as a Human Factors researcher and consultant across a range of settings including Defence, Nuclear, and the Police.

My books include ‘Beyond Human Error’ (CRC Press) and ‘Safety Management: A Qualitative Systems Approach’ (Taylor and Francis). My recent research funders include the Office of the Chief Scientist (Scotland), the Health Foundation, the Dunhill Medical Trust, the Borrow Foundation and the European Commission.

I am co-chair of the Human Factors Special Interest Group for ASPiH, the Association for Simulated Practice in Healthcare, a founding member of the Resilient Health Care Society, Honorary Senior Lecturer at Glasgow Dental School and Honorary Fellow, Dundee Medical School.

Professional memberships and activities

Registered and Chartered Member of the CIEHF
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society

Academic qualifications

Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice, University of Glasgow, 2016
PhD in Psychology, University of Strathclyde, 2003
MSc in Research Methods in Psychology, University of Strathclyde,1993
Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology (with Merit), University of Hull, 1992
BSc in Social Science, University of Edinburgh, 1987

Expertise

Human Factors & Ergonomics
Patient Safety and Quality Improvement
Implementation Science

Research interests

Systems approaches to health and social care safety and improvement
Public health systems

Enterprise and commercial interests

I have no commercial interests but have had a number of paid advisory roles with small honoraria including: Scientific Advisor on Patient Safety and Quality Improvement to NHS Education for Scotland; Human Factors Advisor, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust; 2019-21; External Examiner (various).

Teaching

Postgraduate

Human Factors applied to health and social care
Research and evaluation skills and methods
Supervision of PG dissertations
Implementation science and complex interventions
Public health

Publications

From the last 5 years:

Bowie, P, Ross AJ, Purchase T et al. Patient safety learning for healthcare improvement: considering the" system context" in medico-legal cases? Journal of Personal Injury Law (In Press)

Randall CL et al. Perspectives on the Future of Dissemination and Implementation Research in Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology, 51(1), pp. 143-148.

Ross, AJ et al. A qualitative study of organisational resilience in care homes in Scotland, PLOS ONE, 17(12), e0279376.

Sujan, M., Pickup, L., de Vos, M.S. et al. (2023) 'Operationalising FRAM in Healthcare: A critical reflection on practice', Safety Science, 158, pp. 105994.

Smith, CDL et al. Risk Prediction Models for Head and Neck Cancer: a Rapid Review, Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology, 7(6), pp. 1893-1908.

Creaney G et al. Head and Neck Cancer in the UK – what was the stage prior to COVID-19? UK cancer registries analysis (2011-2018), British Dental Journal, 233(9), pp. 787-793.

Ross, A. J. et al. (2022) Evaluating Childsmile, Scotland’s national oral health improvement programme for children. Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology, 51(1), pp. 133-138.

Khamuani, S., Ross, A. and Robertson, D. (2022) Factors affecting the quality of endodontic treatment in general dental practice in Scotland: A qualitative focus group study. British Dental Journal, 233(2), pp. 129-133.

Evans, K., Woodruff, J., Cowley, A., Bramley, L., Miles, G., Ross, A. , Cooper, J. and Baxendale, B. (2022) GENESISS 2—Generating Standards for In-Situ Simulation project: a systematic mapping review. BMC Medical Education, 22, 537.

Baxendale, B., Evans, K., Cowley, A., Bramley, L., Miles, G., Ross, A. , Dring, E. and Cooper, J. (2022) GENESISS 1 - Generating Standards for In-Situ Simulation project: a scoping review and conceptual model. BMC Medical Education, 22(1), 479.

Mathur, S., Conway, D. I. , Macpherson, L. M.D. and Ross, A. J. (2022) Systematic overview of systematic reviews and clinical guidelines: assessment and prevention of behavioural risk factors associated with oral cancer to inform dental professionals in primary care dental practices. Evidence-Based Dentistry, (doi: 10.1038/s41432-022-0235-1) (PMID:35256757) (Early Online Publication)

Slater, D., Hollnagel, E., MacKinnon, R., Sujan, M., Carson-Stevens, A., Ross, A. and Bowie, P. (2022) A systems analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic response in the United Kingdom - part 1 - the overall context. Safety Science, 146, 105525.

Sujan M, Bilbro N, Ross A, Earl L, Ibrahim M, Bond-Smith G, Ghaferi A, Pickup L, McCulloch P. (2022) Failure to rescue following emergency surgery: a FRAM analysis of the management of the deteriorating patient. Applied Ergonomics, 98, 103608.

Young, M., Ross, A. , Sherriff, A. , Deas, L. and Gnich, W. (2021) Child health interventions delivered by lay health workers to parents: a realist review. Journal of Child Health Care, 25(4), pp. 628-646.

Conway DI, Hovanec J, Ahrens W, et al. Occupational socioeconomic risk associations for head and neck cancer in Europe and South America: individual participant data analysis of pooled case–control studies within the INHANCE Consortium J Epidemiol Community Health 2021;75:779-787.

Siyang Yuan, S., Humphris, G., Macpherson, L. , Ross, A. and Freeman, R. (2021) Communicating with parents and preschool children: a qualitative exploration of dental professional-parent-child interactions during paediatric consultations to prevent early childhood caries. Frontiers in Public Health, 9, 669395.

Yuan, S., Humphris, G., Macpherson, L. , Ross, A. and Freeman, R. (2021) Communication strategies to encourage child participation in an oral health promotion session: An exemplar video observational study. Health Expectations, 24(2), pp. 700-708.

Bowie, P., Baylis, D., Price, J., Bradshaw, P., McNab, D., Ker, J., Carson-Stevens, A. and Ross, A. (2021) Is the “never event” concept a useful safety management strategy in complex primary healthcare systems? International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 33(Suppl1), pp. 25-30.

Anderson, J.E., Ross, A.J. , Macrae, C. and Wiig, S. (2020) Defining adaptive capacity in healthcare: a new framework for researching resilient performance. Applied Ergonomics, 87, 103111.

Anderson, J.E., Ross, A. , Back, J., Duncan, M., Snell, P., Hopper, A. and Jaye, P. (2020) Beyond ‘find and fix’: improving quality and safety through resilient healthcare systems. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 32(3), pp. 204-211.

Ross, A. , Murrels, T., Kirby, T., Jaye, P. and Anderson, J.E. (2019) An integrated statistical model of Emergency Department length of stay informed by Resilient Health Care principles. Safety Science, 120, pp. 129-136.

Yuan, S., Humphris, G., Macpherson, L. , Ross, A. and Freeman, R. (2019) Development of an Interaction Coding Scheme (PaeD-TrICS) to record the triadic communication behaviours in preventive dental consultations with preschool child patients and families: a video-based observational study. BMC Oral Health, 19, 162.

Yuan, S., Humphris, G., Ross, A. , Macpherson, L. and Freeman, R. (2019) Recording communication in primary dental practice: an exploratory study of interactions between dental health professionals, children and parents. British Dental Journal, 227, pp. 887-892.

Anderson, J.E., Ross, A. J. , Lim, R., Kodate, N., Thompson, K., Jensen, H. and Cooney, K. (2019) Nursing teamwork in the care of older people: A mixed methods study. Applied Ergonomics, 80, pp. 119-129.

Hodgins, F., Sherriff, A. , Gnich, W., Ross, A. J. and Macpherson, L. M.D. (2018) The effectiveness of Dental Health Support Workers at linking families with primary care dental practices: a population-wide data linkage cohort study. BMC Oral Health, 18, 191.

Yuan, S., Humphris, G., Ross, A. , MacPherson, L. , Zhou, Y. and Freeman, R. (2018) A mixed-methods feasibility study protocol to assess the communication behaviours within the dental health professional-parent-child triad in a general dental practice setting. Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 4, 136.

McNab, D., Bowie, P., Ross, A. , MacWalter, G., Ryan, M. and Morrison, J. (2018) A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effectiveness of pharmacist-led medication reconciliation in the community after hospital discharge. BMJ Quality and Safety, 27(4), pp. 308-320.

Ross, A. , Sherriff, A. , Kidd, J., Gnich, W., Anderson, J.E., Deas, L. and Macpherson, L. (2018) A systems approach using the functional resonance analysis method to support fluoride varnish application for children attending general dental practice. Applied Ergonomics, 68, pp. 294-303.

Lee, Y. and Ross, A. (2018) Projected speciality career choices amongst undergraduate dental students in Scotland. British Dental Journal, 224(1), pp. 32-37.

al.ross@staffs.ac.uk