1. Safety in an Uncertain World Leah Soroka Director of S&T Foresight and Science Promotion Health Canada

2. What is Safety?

3. The Evolving Perceptions of Safety Past, Present and Future PASTPRESENTFUTURE PUBLIC EXPECTATIONS Concept ‘Safety’ emerging: workplace, cars, immunization Protection Choice- “ I want to do it my way” Fast response Choice Flexibility Government provides information, individual chooses to act or not Peers and social media provide increase access to information INDUSTRY Industry conforms to government standards Workplace risk awareness Large corporate entities Direct communication with public Generation of Innovative ideas Meet consumer demands Concerned about cyber security…safety of information Constant application of innovation GOVERNMENT Policies driven by events Prescriptive response; command and control Efficiency based More preventative emphasis Prescriptive rules to control for specific situations Process focus Concept of flexibility recognize; not implemented Regulatory back-ups Whole systems approach: -Collaborative international standards Decision making under uncertainty Convenor; facilitator; information provider

4. The changing perception of danger, risk and injury Moving from physical to mental work (stress) –Increased psychosocial issues (work/life, sandwich generation, keeping pace with changing tech) –Work place illness from inactivity; consequences of inactivity –Moving from quantifiable to qualitative Moving from validating products to systems approach –From strict S&T to safety systems –Cumulative impact of systems Moving from regimented to flexible –Moving from prescription to outcome based –Moving from risk management (probability) to uncertainty

5. Changed perceptions of danger, risk and injury change the Concept of Life 3 main domain influences: Society and work organization –Working hours to work best part of the day, 24/7 movement Management and technology –Connected remotely Environment –Cumulative impacts, enabling environment –Glocalization Each element influences the other…therefore a systems approach is required

6. How to Manage the Transition… From: Physical to Mental work; Products to Systems; and Regimented to Flexible Decision support systems (ubiquitous sensing, computer capacity, nanosensors) –Legacy systems – Watson –Real-time communication networks- Motorola 4G Networks Systems focus –Danger, risk and injury from multi-sector approach Flexibility and Experimentation –Solutions oriented regulation- guidelines and rules S&T assist and support entire system

7. Thank You Comments / Questions / Suggestions? FORESIGHT@HC-SC.GC.CA