Browsing by Subject "Sociotechnical systems"

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    Human Factors and Ergonomics Methods for Pharmacy Research and Clinical Practice
    (Elsevier, 2021) Holden, Richard J.; Abebe, Ephrem; Russ-Jara, Alissa L.; Chui, Michelle A.; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Background: Human factors and ergonomics (HFE) is a scientific and practical human-centered discipline that studies and improves human performance in sociotechnical systems. HFE in pharmacy promotes the human-centered design of systems to support individuals and teams performing medication-related work. Objective: To review select HFE methods well suited to address pharmacy challenges, with examples of their application in pharmacy. Methods: We define the scope of HFE methods in pharmacy as applications to pharmacy settings, such as inpatient or community pharmacies, as well as medication-related phenomena such as medication safety, adherence, or deprescribing. We identify and present seven categories of HFE methods suited to widespread use for pharmacy research and clinical practice. Results: Categories of HFE methods applicable to pharmacy include work system analysis; task analysis; workload assessment; medication safety and error analysis; user-centered and participatory design; usability evaluation; and physical ergonomics. HFE methods are used in three broad phases of human-centered design and evaluation: study; design; and evaluation. The most robust applications of HFE methods involve the combination of HFE methods across all three phases. Two cases illustrate such a comprehensive application of HFE: one case of medication package, label, and information design and a second case of human-centered design of a digital decision aid for medication safety. Conclusions: Pharmacy, including the places where pharmacy professionals work and the multistep process of medication use across people and settings, can benefit from HFE. This is because pharmacy is a human-centered sociotechnical system with an existing tradition of studying and analyzing the present state, designing solutions to problems, and evaluating those solutions in laboratory or practice settings. We conclude by addressing common concerns about the implementation of HFE methods and urge the adoption of HFE methods in pharmacy.
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    Macroergonomic factors in the patient work system: examining the context of patients with chronic illness
    (Taylor & Francis, 2017-01) Holden, Richard J.; Valdez, Rupa S.; Schubert, Christiane C.; Thompson, Morgan J.; Hundt, Ann S.; BioHealth Informatics, School of Informatics and Computing
    Human factors/ergonomics recognises work as embedded in and shaped by levels of social, physical and organisational context. This study investigates the contextual or macroergonomic factors present in the health-related work performed by patients. We performed a secondary content analysis of findings from three studies of the work of chronically ill patients and their informal caregivers. Our resulting consolidated macroergonomic patient work system model identified 17 factors across physical, social and organisational domains and household and community levels. These factors are illustrated with examples from the three studies and discussed as having positive, negative or varying effects on health and health behaviour. We present three brief case studies to illustrate how macroergonomic factors combine across domains and levels to shape performance in expected and unexpected ways. Findings demonstrate not only the importance of context for patients' health-related activities but also specific factors to consider in future research, design and policy efforts. Practitioner Summary: Health-related activities of patients are embedded in and shaped by levels of social, physical and organisational context. This paper combined findings from three studies to specify 17 contextual or macroergonomic factors in home- and community-based work systems of chronically ill patients. These factors have research, design and policy implications.