Reflecting on the 2025 HFES Healthcare Symposium

By Rachel Aronchick

Last week, several members from our team had the pleasure of attending the 2025 Human Factors & Ergonomics Society (HFES) Health Care Symposium in Toronto. Our neighbors-to-the-north welcomed us with open arms, graciously hosted us, and then said to each other “it’s time for them to leave, eh?” and sent us out into a wintry, snowy, icy abyss to catch our flights – or not. In all seriousness, we hope all attendees arrived home smoothly, safely and without too much delay.

As always, there was a great breadth of content and learnings shared at this year’s symposium. Though we enjoyed dabbling in other tracks, our team members in attendance spent most of their time within the Medical and Drug Delivery Device (MDD) track. See below for our top key insights and takeaways.

Strategic approaches to scoping and efficiency are key

A prominent theme of this year’s symposium was the focus on scoping, scaling and keeping things lean. One presentation offered a meta-analysis of HF validation test sample sizes versus unique findings observed, sparking hope that there may be a valid claim for smaller sample sizes in the future. Another presentation reminded us that the oft-received regulatory instruction to “Provide HF data” does not necessarily equate to “Conduct an HF validation test” and encouraged practitioners to thoughtfully consider alternative routes (e.g., use-related risk analysis, user interface and intended use comparisons) to demonstrate safety, effectiveness and/or substantial equivalence. A panel that spoke on self-selection of over-the-counter medical devices offered some additional ideas for constraining the scope of self-selection tests to reduce the burden on practitioners, sponsors and participants alike. It seemed like even the hotel was embracing the “scale things down” mantra, as we all endured getting very close in elevators (or the stairwells, if the elevator odds weren’t in your favor) and during the bustling Monday night poster session.

The robots are here (but AI will not replace us!)

Mirroring the trends we’ve seen over the past few years in the world around us, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has officially RSVP’d to the human factors party. Last year, we learned about how products can incorporate AI into their design, development and functionality. This year, the conversation was more focused around process and how we, as HF practitioners, can utilize AI to work smarter, not harder. Dr. Joseph Cafazzo kicked things off with a truly engaging, informative and inspiring keynote presentation, including an AI-assisted heuristic analysis demonstration of an infusion pump. Our own Erin Davis (Research Director) emphasized our unique role as human factors experts in the conceptualization, design and development of AI tools that can support our work. Another presentation reminded us that not all learning styles are created equal: apparently you can utilize an AI bot to help distill FDA guidance and other documents into a podcast form – who knew?!

Turns out, HF practitioners have a sense of humor

Let’s be honest; the terms “failure modes,” “ANSI Z535” and “Bayesian model” don’t exactly scream “comedy hour.” But despite this, the HFES community found a way to bring energy and a healthy dose of levity to presentations amidst sharing valuable insights and thought-provoking perspectives. From mid-panel wardrobe changes to live Jeopardy (that was rich in discourse but not in prizes), and from Celine Dion puns to the occasional toilet joke, the HFES crowd brought the personality. Kudos to all for letting your funny flags fly – it definitely made for a memorable experience.

We’re all in this together (despite the occasional head-scratcher)

It is no secret that competition exists in our industry, whether you’re a consultant or working internally for a medical device or pharmaceutical manufacturer. But one thing was clear this year: we’re all in this together. There is, undoubtedly, some uncertainty in how to best comply with FDA guidance and other regulations and – at times – even disagreement about how to approach various technical activities. Even with centuries of combined HF experience in the room, we still could not come up with a perfect solution for how to word knowledge questions or categorize use error data. And, as the insightful “Hello From the Other Side” consultant panel revealed, there’s often great variability in how HF practitioners are approaching and finding success in performing HFE activities that align with the US FDA’s expectations. Yet, despite these discussions and disagreements, there was a clear consensus on our shared critical role as HF practitioners in this industry and our underlying motivation: while commercializing a safe and effective product is the ultimate goal of any manufacturer, we remain dedicated to also contributing to the development of intuitive, satisfying and approachable products.

We look forward to continuing the conversation next year in the Big Apple; see you in New York City!

Note: Missed the HFES Healthcare Symposium this year? We’ve got you covered. Join our subject matter experts next week as they present key takeaways from their HFES presentations during a live webinar on April 16, 2025. Sign up today!