The rapid growth of home health care has raised many unsolved issues and will have consequences that are far too broad for any one group to analyze in their entirety. Yet a major influence on the safety, quality, and effectiveness of home health care will be the set of issues encompassed by the field of human factors research-the discipline of applying what is known about human capabilities and limitations to the design of products, processes, systems, and work environments. To address these challenges, the National Research Council began a multidisciplinary study to examine a diverse range of behavioral and human factors issues resulting from the increasing migration of medical devices, technologies, and care practices into the home. Its goal is to lay the groundwork for a thorough integration of human factors research with the design and implementation of home health care devices, technologies, and practices. On October 1 and 2, 2009, a group of human factors and other experts met to consider a diverse range of behavioral and human factors issues associated with the increasing migration of medical devices, technologies, and care practices into the home. This book is a summary of that workshop, representing the culmination of the first phase of the study.

In the United States, health care devices, technologies, and practices are rapidly moving into the home. The factors driving this migration include the costs of health care, the growing numbers of older adults, the increasing prevalence of chronic conditions and diseases and improved survival rates for people with those conditions and diseases, and a wide range of technological innovations. The health care that results varies considerably in its safety, effectiveness, and efficiency, as well as in its quality and cost. Health Care Comes Home reviews the state of current knowledge and practice about many aspects of health care in residential settings and explores the short- and long-term effects of emerging trends and technologies. By evaluating existing systems, the book identifies design problems and imbalances between technological system demands and the capabilities of users. Health Care Comes Home recommends critical steps to improve health care in the home. The book's recommendations cover the regulation of health care technologies, proper training and preparation for people who provide in-home care, and how existing housing can be modified and new accessible housing can be better designed for residential health care. The book also identifies knowledge gaps in the field and how these can be addressed through research and development initiatives. Health Care Comes Home lays the foundation for the integration of human health factors with the design and implementation of home health care devices, technologies, and practices. The book describes ways in which the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and federal housing agencies can collaborate to improve the quality of health care at home. It is also a valuable resource for residential health care providers and caregivers.

Increased concern for patient safety has put the issue at the top of the agenda of practitioners, hospitals, and even governments. The risks to patients are many and diverse, and the complexity of the healthcare system that delivers them is huge. Yet the discourse is often oversimplified and underdeveloped. Written from a scientific, human factors

The first edition of Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care and Patient Safety took the medical and ergonomics communities by storm with in-depth coverage of human factors and ergonomics research, concepts, theories, models, methods, and interventions and how they can be applied in health care. Other books focus on particular human

This book introduces human factors engineering (HFE) principles, guidelines, and design methods for medical device design. It starts with an overview of physical, perceptual, and cognitive abilities and limitations, and their implications for design. This analysis produces a set of human factors principles that can be applied across many design challenges, which are then applied to guidelines for designing input controls, visual displays, auditory displays (alerts, alarms, warnings), and human-computer interaction. Specific challenges and solutions for various medical device domains, such as robotic surgery, laparoscopic surgery, artificial organs, wearables, continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps, and reprocessing, are discussed. Human factors research and design methods are provided and integrated into a human factors design lifecycle, and a discussion of regulatory requirements and procedures is provided, including guidance on what human factors activities should be conducted when and how they should be documented. This hands-on professional reference is an essential introduction and resource for students and practitioners in HFE, biomedical engineering, industrial design, graphic design, user-experience design, quality engineering, product management, and regulatory affairs. Teaches readers to design medical devices that are safer, more effective, and less error prone; Explains the role and responsibilities of regulatory agencies in medical device design; Introduces analysis and research methods such as UFMEA, task analysis, heuristic evaluation, and usability testing.

The occurrence of failures and mistakes in health care, from primary care procedures to the complexities of the operating room, has become a hot-button issue with the general public and within the medical community. Around the Patient Bed: Human Factors and Safety in Health Care examines the problem and investigates the tools to improve health care quality and safety from a human factors engineering viewpoint—the applied scientific field engaged in the interaction between the human operator (functionary, worker), task requirements, the governing technical systems, and the characteristics of the work environment. The book presents a systematic human factors-based, proactive approach to the improvement of health care work and patient safety. The proposed approach delineates a more direct and powerful alternative to the contemporary dominant focus on error investigation and care providers' accountability. It demonstrates how significant improvements in the quality of care and enhancement of patient safety are contingent on a major shift from efforts and investments driven by a retroactive study of errors, incidents, and adverse events, to an emphasis on proactive human factors-driven intervention and the development of corresponding conceptual approaches and methods for its systematic implementation. Edited by Yoel Donchin, representing the medical profession, and Daniel Gopher, from the human factors engineering field, the book brings together experts who have collaborated to present studies that reveal a wide range of problems and weaknesses of the contemporary health care system, which impair safety and quality and increase workload. The book presents practical solutions based on human factors engineering components and cognitive psychology, and explains their driving principles and methodologies. This approach provides tools to significantly reduce the number of errors, creates a safe environment, and improves the quality of health care.

Developed to promote the design of safe, effective, and usable medical devices, Handbook of Human Factors in Medical Device Design provides a single convenient source of authoritative information to support evidence-based design and evaluation of medical device user interfaces using rigorous human factors engineering principles. It offers guidance