National Research Council Board on Human-Systems Integration Special Panel Session Human Factors and Home Health Care

Health care is increasingly occurring in home settings rather than in professional medical settings, and consumers are expected to engage in a wide range of health-care tasks using wide varieties of technology and equipment. The Board on Human-Systems Integration (BOHSI) at the National Research Council (NRC) recently provided oversight on a study funded by the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality to examine the current state of health care in the home and identify existing problems and opportunities for improvement of care through the application of human factors/ergonomics knowledge and methods. This panel will present the highlights of the findings of that study, and panelists will discuss the increasingly important role of human factors engineering within home health care.