JMIR Human Factors

(Re-)designing health care and making health care interventions and technologies usable, safe, and effective.

Editor-in-Chief:

Andre Kushniruk, BA, MSc, PhD, FACMI, School of Health Information Science, University of Victoria, Canada


Impact Factor 2.6 CiteScore 3.4

JMIR Human Factors (JHF, ISSN 2292-9495, Journal Impact Factor™ 2.6 (Clarivate, 2024)) is a multidisciplinary journal with contributions from design experts, medical researchers, engineers, and social scientists.

JMIR Human Factors focuses on understanding how the behaviour and thinking of humans can influence and shape the design of health care interventions and technologies, and how the design can be evaluated and improved to make health care interventions and technologies usable, safe, and effective. This includes usability studies and heuristic evaluations, studies concerning ergonomics and error prevention, design studies for medical devices and healthcare systems/workflows, enhancing teamwork through Human Factors based teamwork training, measuring non-technical skills in staff like leadership, communication, situational awareness and teamwork, and healthcare policies and procedures to reduce errors and increase safety.

JMIR Human Factors focuses aspires to lead health care towards a culture of "usability by design", as well as to a culture of testing, error-prevention and safety, by promoting and publishing reports rigorously evaluating the usability and human factors aspects in health care, as well as encouraging the development and debate on new methods in this emerging field. Possible contributions include usability studies and heuristic evaluations, studies concerning ergonomics and error prevention, design studies for medical devices and healthcare systems/workflows, enhancing teamwork through human factors-based teamwork training, measuring non-technical skills in staff like leadership, communication, situational awareness and teamwork, and healthcare policies and procedures to reduce errors and increase safety. Reviews, viewpoint papers and tutorials are as welcome as original research.

All articles are professionally copyedited and typeset.

JMIR Human Factors is indexed in National Library of Medicine (NLM)/MEDLINE, PubMed, PubMed Central, DOAJ, Scopus, Sherpa Romeo, PsycINFO, and the Web of Science (WoS)/ESCI.

Recent Articles

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Focus Groups and Qualitative Research for Human Factors Research

Digital health education can enhance the quality of life of patients with heart failure by providing accessible and tailored information, which is essential for effective self-care and self-management.

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Participatory Design and Participatory Research

In health care, the use of nursing technological innovations, particularly technological products, is rapidly increasing; however, these innovations do not always align with nursing practice. An explanation for this issue could be that nursing technological innovations are developed and implemented with a top-down approach, which could subsequently limit the positive impact on practice. Cocreation with stakeholders such as nurses can help address this issue. Nowadays, health care centers increasingly encourage stakeholder participation, which is known as a bottom-up cocreation approach. However, little is known about the experience of nurses and their managers with this approach and the innovations it results in within the field of nursing care.

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User Needs and Competencies

Telehealth has grown, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, improving access for those in remote or underserved areas. However, its implementation faces technological, practical, and interpersonal barriers.

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Design and Usability of Clinical Software and EHRs

The rising demand for advanced home care services, driven by an aging population and the preference for aging in place, presents both challenges and opportunities. While advanced home care can improve cost-effectiveness and patient outcomes, gaps remain in understanding how eHealth technologies can optimize these services. eHealth tools have the potential to offer personalized, coordinated care that increases patient engagement. However, research exploring health care professionals’ (HCPs) perspectives on the use of eHealth tools in advanced home care and their impact on the HCP-patient relationship is limited.

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Design and Usability of Medical Devices

During the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person visitation from family members was extremely restricted and sometimes eliminated to reduce the risk of transmission of SARS-COV2 within hospitals. During this time, many healthcare professionals created novel strategies that they deployed rapidly to maintain a patient-centered and family-centered care approach. While pandemic-related restrictions have eased, these systems, including video-conferencing or virtual bedside visits, remain relevant for family members who cannot be physically present due to other reasons (lack of access to transport, socio-economic restraints, geographical distance).

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Design, Usability, and Evaluation of Research Instruments, Scales, and Measures

Digital health competence is increasingly recognized as a core competence for healthcare professionals. A comprehensive evaluation of knowledge, skills, performance, values, and attitudes necessary to adapt to evolving digital health technologies is essential. The DigiHealthCom is a well-established instrument designed to assess digital health competence across diverse healthcare professionals.

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Design and Usability of Clinical Software and EHRs

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States extended regulatory flexibilities to make telemedicine more accessible to providers and patients. Some of these flexibilities allowed providers to intake patients over telemedicine and prescribe certain scheduled medications without an in-person visit.

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Reviews on Human Factors

Health professionals face significant psychological burdens including burnout, anxiety, and depression. These can negatively impact their well-being and patient care. Traditional psychological health interventions often encounter limitations such as a lack of accessibility and privacy. Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots are being explored as potential solutions to these challenges, offering available and immediate support. Therefore, it is necessary to systematically evaluate the characteristics and effectiveness of AI chatbots designed specifically for health professionals.

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Design and Usability of Consumer Health Tech and Home Monitoring Devices

Technology can be an effective tool for providing health services and disease self-management, especially in diabetes care. Technology tools for disease self-management include health-related applications in computers, smartphones, and robots. To provide a more effective continuity of care and to better understand and facilitate disease management in middle-aged and older adult diabetic patients, robots can be used to improve the quality of care and supplement community health resources, such as community pharmacies.

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User Needs and Competencies

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a common condition worldwide and home dialysis (HD) provides economic, quality of life, and clinical advantages compared to other dialysis modalities. Human-centered design aims to support the development of eHealth solutions with high usability and user experience. However, research on the eHealth needs of patients using HD is scarce.

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Design, Usability, and Evaluation of Research Instruments, Scales, and Measures

Language acquisition is a critical developmental milestone, with notable variability during the first 4 years of life. Developmental language disorder (DLD) often overlaps with other neurodevelopmental disorders or simple language delay (SLD), making early detection challenging, especially for primary caregivers.

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Design and Usability of Medical Devices

Wearable transdermal alcohol sensor (TAS) devices generate continuous data on alcohol consumption through the indiscernible sweat vapors on the skin. This continuous alcohol monitoring capability could provide a new method for alcohol services to monitor service users at various stages of their alcohol treatment.

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