Call for Proposals for the Health-Care Symposium

HFES invites your submissions for the 2012 Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care, to be held March 12?14 at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland.

The proposal due date has been extended to MONDAY, OCTOBER 31, at 5:00 p.m. Pacific time.

STEPS TO SUBMIT

Step 1: Determine which one of the three topical tracks described below best relates to your proposal topic.

Step 2: Determine your preferred presentation format: oral or poster. Note that the track chair may change your presentation format upon acceptance in order to ensure the best fit within the overall program.

Step 3: Complete the submission form (.wpd).

Step 4: E-mail your completed submission form (in Word or PDF format) to HFES Communications Director Lois Smith at lois@hfes.org. Your proposal will be forwarded to the track chairs for evaluation by their respective committees.

TRACK DESCRIPTIONS

The Patient and Health-Care Provider Safety Track is seeking submissions that address human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) design issues within the health-care system that affect patient and care provider safety. Topics for consideration include, but are not limited to, applications of HF/E principles and techniques in inpatient and outpatient settings, nursing homes, home care, and transitions of care; teamwork, communication, and coordination of care; health care as a sociotechnical work system and organizational factors in patient and provider safety; using human factors engineering to improve the design of the physical environment; safety risk identification and assessment; provider workload in health care; HF/E to improve compliance with evidence-based guidelines; and HF/E interventions to improve patient and care provider safety.

The Health-Care Information Technology Track seeks submissions that advance a range of health IT areas, including electronic health records, personal health records/portals, and health-care information systems (HIS/HIM). Preference will be given to papers that (a) demonstrate the application of human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) methods to beneficial outcomes for patient safety, clinician efficiency/effectiveness, and personal health and wellness; (b) provide new methodologies to improve the measurement of user behavior in the varied contexts in which HIT is used; (c) applied research that helps to better understand individual users, user tasks, user communities, and sociotechnical dimensions; and (d) present new design directions, platforms, and ideas that solve difficult problems in HIT. We would like the speakers to be bold and thought-provoking in their approach and take this opportunity to help advance the field in a significant way.

The Medical Device Design Track is seeking submissions that describe case studies of applying human factors/ergonomics methods to the following areas: (a) identifying and analyzing user requirements for device interface design that are focused on the analysis of use-related risks, (b) identifying design criteria for device user interfaces through U.S. and OUS standards, (c)  ethnographic research as a tool for device development, (d) formative and summative usability-testing designs consistent with regulatory expectations for validation of use-related safety, (e) device design methods for safety and ease-of use-considerations, (f) home health-care design issues for devices and instructions for use, and (g) surgical- or invasive-device user interface design and testing.

REVIEW CRITERIA

Proposals will be evaluated by three reviewers in the identified track based on

• How well the topic fills a need within the track
• Value of the content/message for to the audience
• Relevance of the speaker?s background (e.g., HF/E, industry, health-care, or regulatory professional) for the track?s needs
• Quality of submission (e.g., clarity of idea presentation)
• Expected impact of the presentation

SYMPOSIUM PROCEEDINGS

Accepted authors will be invited to submit a 5-page paper for publication in the symposium proceedings. Details will follow with the acceptance letter.

Return to the main symposium page.