Summary
Objectives To summarize current excellent research in the field of bio-medical informatics human factors.
Methods We provide a synopsis of the articles selected for the IMIA yearbook 2009, from which we attempt to derive a synthetic overview of the activity and new trends in the field. A special attention was made to pick papers also from non bio-medical informatics special ized journals and to perform a worldwide selection.
Results while the state of the research in the field of human factors is illustrated by a set of fairly heterogeneous studies, it is possible to identify trends. Thus, clearly, the importance of issues related to healthcare information technologies (HIT) adoption, still occupies a central role in the field.
Conclusions Convincing the clinicians of the HIT potential gains is still a challenge. But the HIT community will also have to give birth to interdisciplinary research and clear methods to optimize imple mentations and subsequent achievement of managerial objectives. The best paper selection of articles on human factors shows ex amples of excellent research on methods concerning original options to once again assess the importance of HIT and take into account the healthcare personnel psychology when confronted to the adop tion of new tools and processes.
A Bio-medical Informatics Perspective on Human Factors