Newswise — The program for the upcoming health-care symposium is being finalized, featuring more than 200 presentations by researchers, physicians and other health-care providers, medical device designers, policy-makers, health IT professionals, and biomedical engineers. The symposium, hosted by the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, will be held April 26-29 at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland.

The program is again organized in four tracks: Patient and Health-Care Provider Safety, Clinical and Consumer Health-Care Information Technology, Medical and Drug-Delivery Devices, and Clinical Care Settings.

Here is just a sampling of the case studies, research, and design guidance that will be presented at this year’s symposium:

Patient, Heal Thyself: A Manifesto for Consumer Health Design, Joseph Cafazzo, Healthcare Human Factors Improve Patient Outcomes by Enhancing the Fit Between Clinical Workflow and Health-Care Information Systems, Eleanor Hunt, Toolshed Technologies, Inc. Pilots to Performance: Improving Maternal and Child Health Through Human Factors Collaborations With Public Health, Michelle Rogers, Drexel University Investigating Error in Diagnosis: Qualitative Results From a Virtual Patient Simulation Pilot Study, Daniel Nystrom, Linda Williams, and Douglas Paull, VA National Center for Patient Safety A Product Liability Perspective on Medical Device Development, Robert Rauschenberger and Emily Hildebrand, Exponent, Inc. New International and Domestic Medical Device Standards, Edmond Israelski, AbbVie Patterns of Excellent Team Coordination in Trauma Resuscitation, Sarah Parker, MedStar Institute for Innovation - National Center for Human Factors Engineering in Healthcare Combating Ebola: The Role of HF/E Response to the Recent EVD Outbreak, Chair: Joseph Keebler, Wichita State University

The symposium offers a unique opportunity for attendees from the health-care industry, academia, consulting, and regulatory agencies to engage in discussions about challenges in health-care delivery, learn how HF/E science and practice is meeting those challenges, and work jointly on improving patient safety outcomes.

To access the full preliminary program, visit http://www.hfes.org/web/HFESMeetings/2015hcspreliminary.html.

To obtain a press pass for the symposium, please contact HFES Communications Director Lois Smith ([email protected]) or Communications Associate Cara Quinlan ([email protected]).

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The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society is the world's largest scientific association for human factors/ergonomics professionals, with more than 4,800 members globally. HFES members include psychologists and other scientists, designers, and engineers, all of whom have a common interest in designing systems and equipment to be safe and effective for the people who operate and maintain them. “Human Factors and Ergonomics: People-Friendly Design Through Science and Engineering”

Save the date for the 2015 International Annual Meeting, to be held October 26-30 in Los Angeles.