Summary
Objectives: Recent federal mandates and incentives have spurred the rapid growth, development
and adoption of health information technology (HIT). While providing significant benefits
for better data integration, organization, and availability, recent reports have raised
questions regarding their potential to cause medication errors, decreased clinician
performance, and lowered efficiency. The goal of this survey article is to (a) examine
the theoretical and foundational models of human factors and ergonomics (HFE) that
are being advocated for achieving patient safety and quality, and their use in the
evaluation of health-care systems; (b) and the potential for macroergonomic HFE approaches
within the context of current research in biomedical informatics.
Methods: We reviewed literature (2007-2013) on the use of HFE approaches in healthcare settings,
from databases such as Pubmed, CINAHL, and Cochran.
Results: Based on the review, we discuss the systems-oriented models, their use in the evaluation
of HIT, and examples of their use in the evaluation of EHR systems, clinical workflow
processes, and medication errors. We also discuss the opportunities for better integrating
HFE methods within biomedical informatics research and its potential advantages.
Conclusions: The use of HFE methods is still in its infancy - better integration of HFE within
the design lifecycle, and quality improvement efforts can further the ability of informatics
researchers to address the key concerns regarding the complexity in clinical settings
and develop HIT solutions that are designed within the social fabric of the considered
setting.
Keywords
Systems-oriented approach - macroergonomics - socio-technical frameworks - patient
safety - human factors
