ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the fundamentals and applications for human factors/ergonomics (HFE) and demonstrates the benefits of HFE design, integration, and participation of stakeholders. The three future trends offer opportunities for health care to benefit from human factors integration. These are by increasing awareness and capacity, achieving a better theoretical understanding of the complexity of health care systems and by embedding HFE in the infrastructure with changes in regulations for design and procurement of medical devices and informatics. HFE provides an understanding of physical, cognitive, and social human capabilities and limitations with respect to interactions between physical, social, and informational aspects of the environment at a micro-level, a meso-level and a macro-level in networks of health care organizations. The environment and tasks involved in caring for people can involve contaminated, physically demanding, and emotionally challenging work in situations where the patient can be both physically and mentally vulnerable.
