Patient ergonomics: 10-year mapping review of patient-centered human factors

Patient ergonomics is the application of human factors or related disciplines to study and improve patients' and other non-professionals' performance of effortful work activities in pursuit of health goals. We performed a mapping review of 212 full-text patient ergonomics publications in two conference proceedings, 2007-2017. The review revealed a robust and growing body of literature on patient ergonomics, particularly in the areas of aging and chronic disease, tools and technologies, and evaluations of patient-centered interventions on outcomes such as usability, user acceptance, and performance. Findings highlighted gaps deserving future research, including research with understudied populations such as children, informal caregivers, networks and collectives (groups), and marginalized populations; on topics such as health promotion and transitions of care; and using longitudinal and experimental study designs. The growth of patient-centeredness in general and of patient ergonomics in particular compel other more focused reviews, new primary research, and developing a roadmap for future patient ergonomics research.

2019 Town Hall on Human Factors and Ergonomics for Patient Work

The 2019 Town Hall gathers stakeholders in the human factors and ergonomics (HFE) community who share an interest in applying HFE to study and improve patient work, an area called “patient ergonomics.” The objective of this town hall is to communally scope, prioritize, and develop applications of HFE for patient work. Whereas the 2018 Town Hall was primarily an initial community gathering, the 2019 Town Hall is envisioned as a space for further developing a community of practice in this area. The central activity of the 2019 Town Hall is a public commentary period, with live scribing, inviting attendees to address the (1) scope of patient ergonomics; (2) prioritization of future efforts; and (3) proposals to lead future development efforts.

Beyond Disease: Technologies for Health Promotion

Health promotion is defined by the World Health Organization as “the process of enabling people to increase control over their health and its determinants, and thereby improve their health.” This is different from the bulk of formal healthcare processes, which are characterized by the treatment of an established disease. Much important human factors research and practice has been done to improve the healthcare delivery process and increasingly human factors professionals are also involved in work on health promotion. Such work has included examining the use and usability of wearable fitness tracking devices, studies of online health information seeking by healthy individuals, and human factors research on social robots for older adults, to name but a few examples. We discuss human factors applications in health promotion, focusing on examples from technology-related research.

Town Hall on Patient-Centered Human Factors and Ergonomics

A central paradigm in the current era of health and healthcare is the centrality of patients, families, and community members in their own health. Patients and other nonprofessionals are increasingly recognized as working independently or in concert with healthcare professionals in an effort to achieve health-related goals. This patient work has been the topic of much recent research in an area of human factors and ergonomics (HFE) we call patient-centered HFE. The town hall on patient-centered HFE draws on the community of healthcare HFE researchers and practitioners to communicate and document the scope of existing work, identify future opportunities, and develop recommendations for future work in this area. The town hall primarily consists of an open floor session with a 40-minute comment period and 40-minute generative exercise to discuss and plan with one another future work in patient-centered HFE.