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Cognitive Informatics pp 211–234Cite as

Clinical Workflow and Human Factors

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Part of the book series: Health Informatics ((HI))

Abstract

This chapter describes the discipline of human factors engineering and how it can be specifically applied to the study and improvement of clinical workflow. Human factors engineering is a well-established scientific discipline that studies the functional capabilities and limitations of humans and methods to integrate these findings into the design and optimization of systems, processes and technology.

The chapter introduces core concepts and methods from the discipline of human factors engineering and describes how they can be applied to the study and improvement of clinical workflow. Applications include situations where there is a need to understand why performance problems or errors are occurring and what can be done to mitigate them; cases where new Health Information Technology (health IT) is being developed and there is a need to understand work as currently done to insure that the new system will meet the needs of users and effectively support workflow; as well as cases where a new process is introduced and there is a need monitor and manage its impact on user workflow, performance, and satisfaction. The human factors methods presented can be used by a variety of organizations and stake-holders (e.g., technology vendors; clinical organizations, quality and safety departments, and individual researchers) and tailored to the scope, size, and budget of the project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MedStar Health, Columbia, MD, USA

    Aaron Zachary Hettinger & Rollin J. Fairbanks

  2. Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

    Aaron Zachary Hettinger & Rollin J. Fairbanks

  3. Roth Cognitive Engineering, Stanford, CA, USA

    Emilie M. Roth

  4. University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Ann Bisantz

Authors
  1. Aaron Zachary Hettinger
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  2. Emilie M. Roth
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  3. Rollin J. Fairbanks
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  4. Ann Bisantz
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aaron Zachary Hettinger .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

    Kai Zheng

  2. Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW, Australia

    Johanna Westbrook

  3. Department of Anesthesiology and Institute for Informatics, School of Medicine, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA

    Thomas G. Kannampallil

  4. Center for Cognitive Studies in Medicine and Public Health, The New York Academy of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    Vimla L. Patel

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Hettinger, A.Z., Roth, E.M., Fairbanks, R.J., Bisantz, A. (2019). Clinical Workflow and Human Factors. In: Zheng, K., Westbrook, J., Kannampallil, T., Patel, V. (eds) Cognitive Informatics. Health Informatics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16916-9_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16916-9_13

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