Highlights from the 2025 International Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care
March 2025
By: Vicky Young & Nicole Hicks
The annual ‘International Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care’ (HFEHC), was held this year over 4 days (March 30th – April 2, 2025), in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
This symposium brings together experts from across the human factors and healthcare fields and provides an opportunity for learning and sharing insights on best practices, and the latest science and innovations that improve safety for patients and providers. Attendees who typically frequent this symposium are diverse and include representatives from the USA Federal Drug Agency, patient safety researchers, biomedical engineers, as well as leaders in healthcare and the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.
This year’s symposium kicked off on a Sunday with a Healthcare Robotics Summit and various full and half day workshops (e.g., Introduction to Human Factors for Medical Products, A Crash Course on Cognitive Ergonomics in Healthcare, and various design related workshops for medical devices, hospital settings, implementation, and healthcare products and systems).
The next 3 days of the HFES symposium included presentation sessions organized into 5 tracks:
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Hospital Environments
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Simulation and Education
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Digital Health
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Medical and Drug Delivery Devices
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Patient Safety and Research Initiatives
Event Highlights
Keynote Presentation: Reflections: On 25 Years in Human Factors, and Why Nothing Will Ever Be the Same
By: Dr. Joseph Cafazzo
The symposium general session kicked off with a presentation by Joseph Cafazzo, the Director of UHN Healthcare Human Factors. Dr. Cafazzo highlighted the importance of human factors in healthcare for improving patient and provider safety. In his presentation he highlighted examples of human factor projects such as user interface improvements on infusion pumps including drug libraries and safety limits, to mobile device apps for diabetes care, to AI implementations that walk users through how to troubleshoot use of an infusion pump. He also highlighted the importance of cross country relationships, describing how the development of insulin from idea to production required cross country collaborations in order to succeed (USA, Canada, and Denmark). It was a great presentation to start off the main symposium session.
Workshop Session: Designing for Implementation: Implementation Science for Human Factors in Health Care
By: Dr. Reid Parks, Dr. Rich Holden, and Dr. Edmond Ramly
This workshop was presented by Edmond Ramly (Indiana University), Reid Parks (Indiana University/University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Rich Holden (Indiana University). The workshop “introduces the fundamentals of implementation science and how to apply them for human factors in health care, to augment the human-centred design of sustainable sociotechnical system interventions in healthcare.” It was a great session and included a mix of presentation, group and table discussions, followed by individual contemplation on one’s own project. The session walked through three frameworks (RE-AIM, CIFR, ERIC) used frequently in implementation science and how these could be applied to human factors research and health care practice. In the workshop, participants could also apply the implementation logic model and frameworks to their own project/intervention or a provided case study.
Poster: Role of Electronic Health Record Data and Display in Promoting Diagnostic Equity: Insights from Clinicians and Health Equity Experts
By: Garrett Foresman, Laura Schubel, Patricia Spaar, Sonita S. Bennett, Yukti Kathuria, Parisa Lotifibagha, Lily Bigelow, Dr. Karey Sutton, Dr. Elizabeth Selden, Dr. William Gallagher, Dr. Muge Capan, and Dr. Kristen Miller
Garrett Foresman presenting on the use of EHR data to address diagnostic disparities
Garrett Foresman, research team member at the Center, presented a poster at the HFEHC conference on how electronic health record (EHR) data can support more equitable diagnoses. The study explored how healthcare providers and health equity experts access and use patient-level data—like race, income, housing stability, and access to care—when making diagnostic decisions. Participants agreed that this information is essential for understanding the full picture of a patient’s health, especially for those from marginalized communities. However, they also reported major challenges: the data is often inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, or hard to access within the EHR. These limitations make it difficult to apply an equity lens to diagnosis in real-time. The study highlights the need for better tools and data systems to help clinicians make fairer, more accurate diagnoses for all patients.
Evening Celebration: A celebration of the Academic Practice Partnership between William Osler Health System and University of Toronto Centre for Healthcare Engineering
A celebration event was hosted by the William Osler Health System (WOHS) and the University of Toronto (UofT), Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering – Healthcare Engineering who have joined forces in an Academic Partnership Practice. This partnership was initiated by Dr. Myrtede Alfred, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MIE) at the UofT who recognized the need for working closely with front line care providers. The event was hosted by Dr. Greg Jamieson (Professor in MIE, UofT) and speakers included Dr. Alfred, Tiziana Rivera (Executive Vice President, Quality, Research and Chief Nursing Executive, WHOS), Dr. Marcus Bussman (Chair, MIE, UofT), Dr. Chris Yip, (Dean, Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering UofT), and Charissa Cordon (Associate Vice President, Practice and Academics, WHOS). This event connected students and professionals attending the HFES event with professors and professionals within Healthcare Engineering and WOHS. We are looking forward to the exciting opportunities this partnership will create.
By: Dr. Kelly Smith, Kevin O'Reilly, Dr. Myrtede Alfred, Dr. Bat-Zion (Betsy) Hose, Dr. Xian Yao, and Dr. Kristen Miller
Dr. Kelly Smith presenting on how to empower people in research
In this session, Center Investigator Dr. Kelly Smith chaired a Panel discussion with Dr. Myrtede Alfred (MIE, UofT) and Kevin O’Reilly (Patient Partner at the Center). Kevin spoke about his experience with being a patient partner living with depression and participating with different research groups including with the Patient Oriented Research team at Michael Garron Hospital (Toronto). He highlighted the overall benefits which included being able to share his story and have his voice heard. He also mentioned communication challenges he faced as a patient partner, not knowing what exactly was expected of him nor knowing when to hear back from the research team. This was also very good feedback for the research groups he was and is still partnered with.
Dr. Alfred also spoke about her research with Black pregnant women and birthing people highlighting the hurdles, negative responses, and associated risks. She discussed a patient journey mapping study conducted out of South Carolina with women and birthing people during the pregnancy and postpartum periods, and the challenges with engaging patients such as recruiting patients and patient retention in longitudinal studies. The second portion of the session included a Q&A with panel attendees and the audience, including discussions about best practices for engaging patients and family members in research across different countries. The panel was a highlight from the conference and included enriching conversations and considerations for future patient and family engagement!
Overall, the conference was a valuable experience, providing research team members at the Center with an opportunity to connect and collaborate while deepening our understanding of patient safety and initiatives focused on engaging both patients and healthcare providers.