Human Factors in Healthcare

The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society's newest peer-reviewed journal is the open-source journal, Human Factors in Healthcare. The journal is a resource for human factors professionals who specialize in healthcare, as well as industry professionals such as healthcare providers and administrators, medical device and pharmaceutical industries, and regulators, who rely on human factors knowledge, methods, and theories. 

Paper Submission Site

Current Issue

Human Factors in Healthcare is composed of articles on research and application and is inclusive of human factors, usability, and ergonomics. It addresses healthcare human factors issues across a variety of domains, such as:

• Digital Health
• Healthcare Operating Environments
• Patient Safety and Health
• Device Usability and Validation
• Education and Simulation
• Healthcare Worker Safety

The Research Side

On the research side, the journal covers a wide spectrum from basic to applied evidence-based original research; from discipline-specific to multidisciplinary work; and from micro-ergonomics to macro-ergonomic perspectives. 

The journal welcomes high-quality theoretical, conceptual, applied, and review research papers. Contributions that seek to enhance understanding of human factors and ergonomics design and evaluation concepts, methods, and theories applicable to healthcare systems and environments; specific health conditions and patient populations; team science; as well as devices, tools, and technologies to address grand challenges in healthcare are welcomed. The journal also invites research on emergent and critical issues in quality, safety, and human factors in healthcare including but not limited to mobile health (mHealth), telemedicine, emergency response and management, health IT, health systems engineering, global health, inclusive design, persuasive design, and implementation.

The Applied Side

On the applied side, the journal’s inclusive scope extends far beyond traditional research to include best practices, evaluation of methods, case histories and lessons learned, industry perspectives, regular perspectives, contextual inquiry, as well as calls for human factors efforts on emerging topics. 

The journal welcomes application knowledge dissemination that extends beyond empirical research. Every day, industry persons (engineers, product managers, etc.) and human factors practitioners learn about how to support safe, effective, and satisfying interactions with healthcare products and systems, and such knowledge needs to be captured and transferred. Further, we acknowledge the importance of shared understanding of regulatory guidelines and perspectives. The journal welcomes submissions that extend our knowledge of application of human factors toward improved healthcare products and outcomes. 

Editors

Published by Elsevier, articles are published in a rolling fashion, with periodic themed issues. 

Article Submission Site