About Us

Center Overview

Read the MedStar Human Factors Center Overview for the most recent summary of our work.

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Human Factors team

The MedStar Health National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare (the Center) is an applied research, usability, safety advisement, and education center committed to the scientific study of how humans think, work, and interact within the healthcare environment.

Located in Washington, D.C., the Center was founded in 2010 within the MedStar Institute for Innovation and moved to its new organizational home in the MedStar Health Research Institute in July 2020. Working in close collaboration with these teams and the MedStar Institute for Quality and Safety, the Center is the largest human factors program embedded within a U.S. healthcare system.

VISION: Advance health through significant contributions in research application and the diffusion of knowledge in healthcare human factors MISSION: Improve the safety, efficiency, and quality of healthcare through innovative application of the science of human factors and system safety APPROACH: Embrace a systems perspective, recognizing the complex interactions between people, technology, and the environment

“By understanding the underlying causes of near misses or errors, we can keep patient safety at the forefront of everything we do. MedStar Health’s National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare looks at the system humans work within, identifies areas for potential error, and redesigns the system to mitigate those risks.” - Stephen R.T. Evans, MD, Chief Medical Officer, MedStar Health