The Center for Health Care Human Factors leads an assortment of projects that aim to foster safer health care systems, help health care professionals to thrive in their work, and engage patients and families as active members of the health care team.

Current Projects

Health Information Technology

• Care Transitions and Teamwork in Pediatric Trauma: Implications for HIT Design (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, R01)
• Development of a Clinical Decision Support Tool for Facilitating Naturalistic Decision-Making and Improving Blood Culture Utilization (AHRQ, R21)

Infection Prevention

• Using Human Factors Approaches to Discover New Strategies to Improve Environmental Cleaning within the Hospital Setting (CDC Prevention Epicenters Program)
• Applying Human Factors Approaches to Improve the Use of Personal Protective Equipment and Prevent Transmission of High-Consequence Pathogens (CDC Prevention Epicenters Program)

Teamwork, Communication and Care Transitions

• Medication Safety During Transitions from Hospital to Home for Elderly Patients (AHRQ, R01)
• Developing and Validating Sensor-based Measurement Strategies for Team Member Selection (NASA)
• Older Adult Safety While Receiving Home Health Services after Hospital Discharge (AHRQ, K08)

Health Care Worker Performance and Well-Being

• Development and Evaluation of an Online Improvement Project Implementation Course for Anesthesiology Trainees (Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation)
• An Exploration of Anesthesiology Resident Well-being: How Burnout, Depression, and Resilience Unfold During Residency and the Formative Events that Impact Residents’ Experience (Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation)
• Simu-Leader: Training in Leadership for Patient Safety and Quality Improvement (AHRQ, R18)