Human Factors Engineering in Infection Prevention & Control: Opportunities, Examples, and the Future

Effective and practical infection prevention and control (IPC) processes and protocols are vital to safety of patients and health care workers (HCWs) as well as improving public health. This interdisciplinary panel, composed of experts in IPC, public health, medicine, and human factors engineering (HFE), will discuss the urgent need for developing partnerships with HFE experts for improving IPC across the continuum of care (hospital-to-home), provide examples for consequences of not using HFE principles, and approaches in health care system design and delivery during both ‘normal’ and extraordinary (e.g., COVID-19 pandemic) times, describe previous successful partnerships among IPC, public health and HFE, and delineate possible ways forward for HFE-informed IPC and public health.