Summary
Objective: Human factors and ergonomics (HF/E) frameworks and methods are becoming embedded
in the health informatics community. There is now broad recognition that health informatics
tools must account for the diverse needs, characteristics, and abilities of end users,
as well as their context of use. The objective of this review is to synthesize the
current nature and scope of HF/E integration into the health informatics community.
Methods: Because the focus of this synthesis is on understanding the current integration of
the HF/E and health informatics research communities, we manually reviewed all manuscripts
published in primary HF/E and health informatics journals during 2020.
Results: HF/E-focused health informatics studies included in this synthesis focused heavily
on EHR customizations, specifically clinical decision support customizations and customized
data displays, and on mobile health innovations. While HF/E methods aimed to jointly
improve end user safety, performance, and satisfaction, most HF/E-focused health informatics
studies measured only end user satisfaction.
Conclusion: HF/E-focused health informatics researchers need to identify and communicate methodological
standards specific to health informatics, to better synthesize findings across resource
intensive HF/E-focused health informatics studies. Important gaps in the HF/E design
and evaluation process should be addressed in future work, including support for technology
development platforms and training programs so that health informatics designers are
as diverse as end users.
Keywords
Human factors and ergonomics - human centered design - user computer interface - health
informatics - health information technology
