• Question: What checks and balances do you use to make sure that you don't make mistakes?

    Asked by JohnHawkins9E to Aislinn, Nathan, Padraic, Sinead on 11 Feb 2015.
    • Photo: Padraic Morrissey

      Padraic Morrissey answered on 11 Feb 2015:

      Hey John
      Mistakes are inevitable because it’s hard to do everything perfectly. I try to do things very systematically though, so when I do make a mistake I can easily go back and fix it. Sometimes making a mistake can actually help you, because you figure out something else even more important isn’t working when you go and fix the first problem!

    • Photo: Sinead Quirke

      Sinead Quirke answered on 11 Feb 2015:

      Hi John,

      This whole area is called quality control. When I develop a new procedure I send it to a number of colleagues for their amendments or comments. I then adapt based on the feedback. When I was looking after airplane flight procedures data intergity and qaulity are critical. If co=oridinates are incorrect then the plane will fly to teh wrong lcoation – rubbish in rubbish out. We have a lot of procedures to check the data and cyclic redundacny checks placed on files so that we know if corruption has taken palce.

    • Photo: Nathan Quinlan

      Nathan Quinlan answered on 11 Feb 2015:

      Doing calculations by more than one method whenever possible – even if one method is very rough, it can be a reality check on the others. Getting more eyes on every piece of work. Checking out the methods for cases where we already know what the right answer is.

    • Photo: Aislinn Coghlan

      Aislinn Coghlan answered on 11 Feb 2015:

      Hi John,

      This is an especially important area of manufacturing medicine called quality control.

      Before a medicine is released, it goes through about 20 tests, depending on the country you are sending it to. These tests get reviewed and signed off by 6 different people and people called auditors come in to check everything is in order!

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