Design for Health: Applications of Human Factors

Design for Health: Applications of Human Factors, authored by Arathi Sethumadhavan, delves into critical and emergent issues in healthcare and patient safety, highlighting the role of human factors and ergonomics in this domain. The book utilizes the Design for X (DfX) methodology to discuss a wide range of contexts, technologies, and population-dependent criteria (Xs) that must be considered in the design of a safe and usable healthcare ecosystem.

Each chapter discusses a specific topic, such as mHealth, medical devices, emergency response, global health, etc., reviews the concept, and presents a case study that demonstrates how human factors techniques and principles are utilized for the design, evaluation, or improvements to specific tools, devices, and technologies (Section 1), healthcare systems and environments (Section 2), and applications to special populations (Section 3).

The book represents an essential resource for researchers in academia as well as practitioners in medical device industries, consumer IT, and hospital settings. It covers a range of topics from medication reconciliation to self-care to the artificial heart, providing specific design guidelines for a wide range of topics including resilience, stress and fatigue management, and emerging technologies. The book also examines special populations, such as the elderly and the underserved, bringing a multidisciplinary, multi-industry approach to a wide range of healthcare human factors issues.

Published by Elsevier Science on January 29, 2020, the book is available in English and can be identified by the ISBNs 9780128164273 and 9780128166215.