RCSI Safe and Sound Podcast

RCSI Human Factors in Patient Safety Academy

Hello and welcome to the Safe & Sound podcast by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland which explores the world of human factors in healthcare and patient safety. Each episode, we will try to untangle different aspects of this complicated web of human factors in healthcare, through interviews with some extraordinary guests and faculty in Ireland, and across the world. Follow us on Social Media Twitter https://twitter.com/HumanFactorsPS

  1. JAN 27

    Season 3 - Episode 4 - Dr Sudipto Das - Vice Dean for AI and Digital/Connected health, RCSI - Charter Bonus Episode

    Dr. Sudipto Das completed a Bachelor’s in Technology (B.Tech) - Biotechnology (honours) from Rai Foundation Colleges, Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University, Mumbai, India in 2007, followed by a M.Res – Biomedical Sciences, University of Glasgow, U.K in 2008. Subsequently, Dr. Das obtained his PhD in cancer genetics under the supervision of Prof. Raymond Stallings in 2012. He has also spent time as a visiting research fellow in VIB, K.U., Leuven, VuMC, Amsterdam and Hoshi University, Tokyo Japan. His doctoral work gave him the opportunity to develop a core expertise in the area of epigenetics focused on DNA methylation alterations and non-coding RNAs, which he further enhanced during his Post-doctoral career. This has allowed Dr. Das to obtain prestigious fellowship from organizations such as the Irish Cancer Society, obtain several awards, develop various national and international collaborations and publish highly cited peer review articles in high-impact scientific journals (including Cancer Research, Oncogene, JCI, Nat Comms, JCO, Cancer Discovery).  Dr. Das’s key research focus involves application of genomics and epigenomics approaches across a several diseases especially cancer and inflammatory bowel diseases as well as heart failure, with the aim to identifying potential predictive/prognostic biomarkers and/or therapeutic targets that can ultimately aid in enhancing better patient care. His expertise has in turn allowed him to develop various international and national collaboration leading to successful funding applications from British Heart Foundation and Heart Research U.K and Japan Society for Promotion of Science. To date, Dr. Das has accrued >3.5 million euro in funding from national and international funding agencies inlcuding Research Ireland, Health Research Board, Enterprise Ireland and European Crohn's and Colitis foundation, allowing him to establish the "Epigenetics in Gastrointestinal research group". The research group primarily focusses on identifying the role of epigenetic modification as novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets in GI diseases.   Dr. Das has led development and expansion of an award winning M.Sc  - Technologies & Analytics in Precision medicine established in 2021 funded by the Higher Education Authority - Human Captial Iniative grant. The graduates of this programme continue to gain emplyment in leading companies such as EY, Pfizer, Grifols as well as secure prestigious PhD positions.  As Vice Dean for AI and digital, connected health at RCSI, Dr. Das aims to lead the University to effectively embed AI and digital health-associated applications and concepts in research, education as well as operations/service efficiency.

    30 min
  2. 12/09/2025

    Season 3 - Episode 2 - Parallels and Misjudgements, Aviation and Healthcare - Captain Niall Downey FRCSI

    Niall qualified as a doctor from Trinity College, Dublin in 1993. He trained as a surgeon in Belfast and received his FRCSI in 1997. He was a trainee in cardio-thoracic surgery working as an SHO in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast before returning to Dublin where he worked as a registrar in the National Cardiac Surgery Unit in the Mater Hospital and Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin. He subsequently retrained as an airline pilot with Aer Lingus in 1999 and combined aviation with medicine by working as an Accident & Emergency doctor for six years before focusing fully on aviation. After operating as a co-pilot on both the European and Trans-Atlantic fleets, he qualified as a captain in 2010. He is currently operating out of their Manchester base on the Airbus A330 Trans-Atlantic fleet. In 2011, Niall formed Frameworkhealth Ltd, a company providing aviation-style safety training modified specifically for healthcare which draws on his thirty-five years of experience between both industries. The company has since evolved into Framework Safety Group Ltd. This project aims to share aviation’s Safety Management System blended with Human Factors and Evolutionary Psychology with healthcare and other industries in order to address the huge issue of Adverse Events, usually caused by systemic faults but often blamed on the last individual to have touched the ball. Niall aims to encourage industries, especially healthcare to adopt a Just Culture, embed a systemic Human Factors approach and empower staff, patients and their families to speak up as part of the crew. His approach is based on the premise that technology and society have evolved faster in the last century than the human brain can accommodate so we need to adapt to account for this in order to reduce the number of adverse events. He has spoken at many conferences locally, nationally and internationally on the topic. Niall has contributed articles both to specialist journals and national newspapers such as The Irish Times. He has also given interviews for national television including RTE TV News and Virgin Media and has been interviewed several times on BBC Radio. In 2016, Niall was appointed an Expert Advisor to the Northern Ireland Executive’s Dept of Health following a well received TEDx talk in Stormont’s Great Hall. Niall cycled at national level for thirteen years and at pro-am international level for several years in the early 90s and was a member of Northern Ireland’s Commonwealth Games panel. He subsequently worked as Medical Officer for both the Federation of Irish Cyclists (now Cycling Ireland) and the Ulster Cycling Federation. He also worked as a Race Doctor at international level for six years. In 2023, Niall had his first book, ‘Oops! Why Things Go Wrong’ published which explored the increasingly topical issue of error across industry and society generally and most importantly, how to address it. The book is already in it’s second print run after a higher than anticipated demand. The success of the book has led to many invitations from outside healthcare, hence Frameworkhealth’s evolution into Framework Safety Group Ltd in recognition of this broadening scope.

    33 min

About

Hello and welcome to the Safe & Sound podcast by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland which explores the world of human factors in healthcare and patient safety. Each episode, we will try to untangle different aspects of this complicated web of human factors in healthcare, through interviews with some extraordinary guests and faculty in Ireland, and across the world. Follow us on Social Media Twitter https://twitter.com/HumanFactorsPS

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