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Board on Human-Systems Integration (BOHSI) Activities at the National Research Council

The first meeting of the Board on Human-Systems Integration (BOHSI)?previously the Committee on Human-Systems Integration, and before that, the Committee on Human Factors?was held in Washington, D.C., in late April. As reported in the February 2011 HFES Bulletin article, ?A Big Win for HF/E?, this group has been elevated to Board status after 30 years as a standing committee. The change in designation provides the group with more autonomy and elevates the visibility of BOHSI within the National Research Council (NRC) and the National Academies. In fact, within the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, or DBASSE (the division of the NRC that oversees BOHSI), we are now near the top of the list in terms of project funding after having been near the bottom just a few years ago. Thus, there appears to be significant new interest in human factors/ergonomics research at the national level.

At the April meeting we welcomed several new board members: Pascale Carayon, University of Wisconsin; Sara J. Czaja, University of Miami; Andrew S. Imada, president of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA); and David Rempel, University of California, San Francisco. We look forward to meaningful and active participation with these new members.

Attendees were also fortunate to hear presentations from various subject-matter experts at the meeting. Sean Peters from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported on the human factors and human reliability efforts within that agency. Beverly Knapp, deputy director of MANPRINT, presented a talk entitled ?The Army Implementation of Human Systems Integration.? Linda Bartoshuk from the University of Florida discussed the psychophysics of taste.

Finally, updates were presented on several BOHSI projects that are currently under way. These include the external evaluation of the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) and its grantees (funded by the NIDRR); the role of HF/E in home health care (funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality); unifying social frameworks (funded by the Office of Naval Research); and the effects of commuting on pilot fatigue (mandated by Congress and funded by the FAA).

The report on the last study (?Effects of Commuting on Pilot Fatigue?) was released on July 6. This report examines the risk of pilot fatigue attributable to commuting from home to work assignments. It concludes that although there may be a risk of fatigue associated with certain commutes, more data are needed to fully assess the risks. The full report is available www.nap.edu.

Finally, BOHSI will host a panel at the HFES Annual Meeting that will examine health-care issues in the home setting. We look forward to fruitful interactions among the panel members and meeting attendees.

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