title: Human factors engineering and patient safety.
abstract: The pediatric population has features different from those of adults and that are dynamic during the pediatric age range. Pediatric-specific issues result in potential risks for harm during medical care. Basic and applied human factors research has resulted in improvements in the performance of health adults and those adults who have functional limitations. Future work should focus on systematically understanding the human factors needs of children with the goal of redesigning systems of health care to optimize the safety of children and the performance of their care providers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Critical Care, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI 53201, USA. mscanlon@mcw.edu
authors.forename: Matthew C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Scanlon
authors.forename: Ben-Tzion
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Karsh
authors.forename: Emily M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Densmore
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D006804:Ergonomics; D006801:Humans; D010372:Pediatrics; D017751:Safety Management / Q000458:organization & administration*