Definition
Human factors, also called ergonomics, is defined as:
… the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data, and other methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance.
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Ergonomics helps harmonize things that inter with people in terms of people’s need, abilities and limitations. (International Ergonomics Association 2019)
Human factors in health care focuses on improving health-care quality, including patient safety and patient outcomes (Carayon et al. 2014). For behavioral medicine, the goals of human factors are facilitating effective knowledge, techniques, and changes for disease...
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References and Further Reading
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Carayon, P., Wetterneck, T. B., Rivera-Rodriguez, A. J., Hundt, A. S., Hoonakker, P., Holden, R., & Gurses, A. P. (2014). Human factors systems approach to healthcare quality and patient safety. Applied Ergonomics, 45(1), 14–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2013.04.023.
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Drews, F. A., Bakdash, J. Z., & Gleed, J. R. (2017). Improving central line maintenance to reduce central line-associated bloodstream infections. American Journal of Infection Control, 45(11), 1224–1230. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2017.05.017.
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Bakdash, J.Z., Drews, F.A. (2020). Human Factors/Ergonomics. In: Gellman, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_893-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_893-2
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