The Armstrong Institute Center for Health Care Human Factors is dedicated to improving the way that people — health care professionals, patients and families — interact with care systems so that they are safer, high performing and patient-centered. We bring a scientific approach to reengineering health care systems and processes so that medical errors are "designed out" and evidence-based care is built in.
The center brings together experts in human factors and organizational psychology with an interdisciplinary group of researchers, practitioners and educators who want to design health care systems and technologies that work for people, rather than set them up for mistakes and inefficiencies.
Contact us with any questions about our work and how we may be able to collaborate with your team to reduce preventable harms, enhance patient outcomes and experiences, and reduce waste in care delivery.
Human Factors in Health Care
The science of human factors accepts that health care professionals, like all humans, make errors. Human factors experts focus on designing systems that make it “easy to do things right and hard to do things wrong.” See why our scientific methods have promise to move the needle on stubborn patient safety and health care quality problems.
Our Projects
The center's investigators lead and collaborate on projects that aim to make health care safer, more productive and more patient-centered. These efforts have been funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, NASA and foundations.
Our Team
The center team includes industrial and systems engineers and psychologists with specialization in human factors, as well as clinician researchers and health care practitioners.
Services, Workshops and Speakers
Through workshops, consulting, usability testing, speaking engagements and other services, the center supports health care organizations' efforts to deliver safer, more productive and patient-centered care. We also guide medical device companies, drug manufacturers and health IT developers to design safe, highly usable products and related training materials.
Learn about training and services.
Work With Us
Learn about opportunities to collaborate on projects, postdoctoral fellowships and training and internship opportunities.
News and Research Publications
See where our efforts to improve health care are making headlines, and review journal articles by our human factors experts.
Find selected news articles, videos and podcasts and journal articles.