Dr. ir. S.N. Paus-Buzink (Sonja)

Assistant Professor
Scientific Coordinator Laparoscopic Surgical Skills programme
Industrial Design (ID)

Biography

Sonja Paus-Buzink is an assistant professor at the department of Applied Ergonomics and Design. In 2004 Sonja obtained her Master’s degree in Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) at the Delft University of Technology on the development of an assistive product to prevent fall accidents in the toilet environment, with distinction and as best MSc IDE graduate of the year. She specialised in the design of products for people and environments with additional ergonomic demands, such as in healthcare or for elderly people and children. Next, she worked as researcher for the Friendly Rest Room consortium at the Faculty of IDE, Delft University of Technology, investigating several usability aspects of the toilet environment for elderly people. Spring 2005 she started her PhD project focusing on the role of human-product interaction on patient safety during image-based procedures. This work was partly funded by the Scientific Fund of the Catharina Hospital Eindhoven. During her PhD research she did extensive research on the application of simulation tools for surgical training, the influence of different interaction characteristics of simulators (e.g. haptic feedback, visual environment), and the effect on patient safety of using advanced technology and checklist tools in the operating room. She worked closely together with clinical researchers, engineers and cognitive psychologists from various hospitals and medical institutes and simulator companies.

Currently, Sonja is continuing her research on safeguarding patient safety and quality of performance in image-based surgery working on the Laparoscopic Surgical Skills programme for the European Association for Endoscopic Surgery (EAES), for which she was awarded a Fellowship grant by Delft University of Technology and an EAES Research grant. Next to her research activities, Sonja supervises graduation and research projects of students in Industrial Design Engineering and medical students. As a teacher, she was also involved over the past years in several courses on ergonomics and design.

Experience

• May 2012 - current
  Assistant Professor Applied Ergonomics & Design & Scientific Coordinator Laparoscopic Surgical Skills project within the Applied Ergonomics and Design group of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology.

• May 2010 - April 2012
  Post-doctoral Research Associate & Scientific Coordinator Laparoscopic Surgical Skills project within the Applied Ergonomics and Design group of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology. Funded by a TU Delft Fellowship Grant awarded by the Executive Board of Delft University of Technology.

• April 2005 - April 2010
  PhD Candidate Medisign within the Human Information Communication Design group of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology. Partly funded by the Scientific Fund of the Catharina Hospital Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

• February 2004 - March 2005
  Researcher within the EU-FP5 funded Friendly Rest Room project at the Applied Ergonomics and Design group of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology. 

Specialisation / field of research

• Human factors in design
• Medisign: product design for and usability research with medical professionals
• Application of simulation tools for training of image-based medical procedures (e.g. laparoscopy)

Lectures and/or coaches students on:

As a teacher, Sonja is also involved in several courses on ergonomics and design at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology (e.g. ID5721 Capita Selecta Medisign, IO1020 Mens & Product, ID5331 Cognitive Ergonomics for Designers, ID4160 IPD Research Methodology).

Also she is involved in teaching at the Education & Research department of the Catharina Hospital Eindhoven, where she is a tutor in surgical courses on laparoscopic skills and supervises graduation and research projects of medical students.

Publications

Click here for an overview of my publications.