Human Factors and Medicine

Abstract

Technology is particularly paramount in two major aspects of our culture: military and medicine. Concern about reducing human error and optimizing human performance in the use of technology in the military has given rise to the discipline of Human Factors. The importance of systematic consideration of factors that impact on performance with military systems is recognized and to a large extent institutionalized under the rubric of MANPRINT. Human performance in medicine, however, has not been accorded comparable concern. Indeed, the lack of systematic analysis of human performance and error in medicine seems to indicate that the “art” of medicical practice is implicitly emphasized to the relative neglect of the study of the “science” of the delivery of medical treatment. This is more than a bit incongruous considering the high tech mode of contemporary medicine and the profound implications of human error in medical treatment.