New system improves alertness, safety among shift workers

Monash University researchers and optimisation technology company Opturion have developed a cloud-based rostering system to improve alertness, productivity and safety among shift workers.

Funded by the Alertness, Safety and Productivity Cooperative Research Centre, the AlertSafe rostering system has already been trialled in hospitals across Victoria, including Austin Health and Monash Health. Hospital studies have reported a 15% reduction in medical incidents as a result of staff fatigue.

According to Safe Work Australia, shift work and irregular or long working hours can adversely affect the health, safety and wellbeing of workers. Strategies for alertness management are becoming increasingly important, and everyone in the workplace has a responsibility to ensure impaired alertness — or fatigue — doesn’t create a work health and safety risk.

Professor Mark Wallace from the Faculty of IT said the system tracks the impact of shift work on each individual staff member during the rostering process and takes into consideration new alertness management guidelines.

It generates rosters using artificial intelligence-based optimisation, which infers the consequences of each assignment of a shift to a person who can and cannot be assigned to other shifts, Professor Wallace said. The platform then determines smarter ways to improve a roster time until it meets the preference needs of the roster and the people working within it, he said.

Associate Professor Mark Howard, a sleep and respiratory physician from Austin Health, said healthcare workers are the biggest shift-working population in the country and the recent COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the stress they’ve been placed under.

There’s been a lack of a systematic approach when it comes to effectively rostering shift workers so that they perform their roles safely and effectively, Professor Howard said, noting that the trialling allowed Austin Health to implement rostering changes for its medical staff who are working in an extremely high-pressure environment.

“The rostering changes have allowed us to carry out shorter rotations, which minimised staff burnout and stress, as well as lowering the adverse medical implications for patients.”

The platform was developed in a collaboration with the Faculty of Information Technology (IT) and the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health at Monash University, the Institute for Breathing and Sleep at Austin Health and the University of Sydney.

The algorithms developed by the Department of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence in the Faculty of IT use a mathematical model based on the underlying biology of sleep to estimate the impact of work schedules on alertness levels.

The platform, which was commercialised by Opturion, has also been used in various construction projects, engineering applications and medical transport. Ambulance Victoria and the Victorian Level Crossing Removal Program have already been implementing the system within their rostering schedules.

The Managing Director of Opturion, Dr Alan Dormer, said the platform can be applied across a variety of industries including health care, the police force, emergency services, airlines, trucking, construction and mining.

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