Emergo by UL HFR&D Team Highlights from the 2025 HFES Health Care Symposium

From March 30 to April 2, 2025, many Emergo by UL team members will present at the 2025 HFES International Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care in Toronto, Canada. Our team is pleased to have the opportunity to share our human factors engineering (HFE) insights with the community via oral presentations, posters, panels and a workshop. 

Although we would love to connect with all our customers and HFE colleagues at the conference, we know it is not feasible for everyone to attend in person. As such, during this webinar, we will share the key takeaways from several of our conference presentations, including the following: 

• The AI Design Process and Human Factors Engineers’ Unique Role
• Mapping Out a Global Regulatory Strategy
• Integrating Live Support Resources into an HF Validation Test: Practical Considerations and Case Studies
• So You Want to Update the System: Tips and Tricks for Design Updates Starting with Proactive HF Documentation

The webinar will offer practical tips for scoping HFE work to support global market access, designing custom AI tools to support HFE activities, integrating live help resources into human factors (HF) validation testing and documenting design changes for marketed systems, which attendees can immediately apply to their day-to-day HF work. The webinar will give attendees a chance to ask live questions on the above topics and will provide a brief overview of the other Emergo by UL presentations and posters.

About our moderator

Rachel Aronchick, managing human factors specialist

Rachel Aronchick served as co-track chair for the Medical and Drug Delivery Device track at the 2025 HFES Healthcare Symposium. She is a Managing Human Factors Specialist on Emergo by UL’s Human Factors Research & Design team and has been working as an HF consultant in the medical space for over 12 years. Aronchick is a board-certified Human Factors Professional and holds a BS in Human Factors from Tufts University and an MS in Interactive Design from Northeastern University. She is co-author of a book titled Designing for Safe Use – 100 Principles for Making Products Safer.

About our presenters

Erin Davis, research director

Erin Davis is a research director with Emergo by UL’s Human Factors Research & Design team, joining in 2012. She has over a decade of experience delivering HFE services to the medical device, pharmaceutical, and in vitro diagnostic industries. A board-certified Human Factors professional, she leads and oversees research and analysis activities such as early-stage user research, usability testing, and use-related risk analysis. Davis teaches workshops on a wide variety of HFE topics and advises on training for HFE professionals. She is co-author of two books: Medical Device Use Error—Root Cause Analysis and User Interface Requirements for Medical Devices. She earned her Master’s degree in Human Factors from Tufts University and her Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Marquette University. 

Layne Hartman, senior human factors specialist

Layne Hartman is a senior human factors specialist with Emergo by UL’s Human Factors Research & Design (HFR&D) team. He has been with the team since 2020. He has experience delivering HFE services to the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. As a senior human factors specialist, Hartman is involved in advising customers on their Human Factors regulatory strategy, developing usability test protocols, conducting human factors research, and developing reports that satisfy customers’ needs and regulators’ expectations. He holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and a B.M. in Music Performance from Northwestern University.

Suruchi Batra, senior human factors specialist

Suruchi Batra is a senior human factors specialist with Emergo by UL’s Human Factors Research & Design (HFR&D) team. She has been with the team since January 2021. She has experience delivering HFE services to the medical device, pharmaceutical, and laboratory equipment industries. Batra supports research activities such as early-stage user research and HF validation testing. Furthermore, she is very involved with reporting efforts, seeking to complete thorough root cause analyses, and helps customers develop key HFE documents for their design history files. She holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University.

Stephanie Larsen, managing human factors specialist

Stephanie Larsen is a managing human factors specialist with Emergo by UL’s Human Factors Research & Design (HFR&D) team. She has been with the team since 2012. She has experience delivering human factors engineering (HFE) services to the medical device, pharmaceutical, and therapeutic device industries. A board-certified human factors professional, Larsen leads and oversees research activities such as usability testing and expert reviews. Furthermore, she helps customers develop key HFE documents for their design history files, including use-related risk analyses and HFE reports, and advises customers on their HFE strategy. Additionally, Stephanie is the co-author of the book entitled Writing Human Factors Plans & Reports for Medical Technology Development. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and Mathematics from Binghamton University and an M.S. in Human Factors Engineering and Ergonomics from Virginia Tech.