The International Journal for Quality in Health Care, the official scientific journal of the International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQUA), published an article on the activity developed by Human Factors Engineering / Ergonomics at Luz Saúde. The article by Raquel Santos, the coordinator of this area in the group, integrated a special issue of the journal dedicated to Human Factors / Ergonomics, with the purpose of highlighting the importance of this field in health organizations . The International Society for Quality in Healthcare is a worldwide organization that has been around for 30 years, bringing together healthcare professionals from over 70 countries, with the objective of improving the quality and safety of healthcare. We have been working to improve the quality and safety of health care worldwide for over 30 years. We aim to achieve our goal through education, knowledge sharing, external evaluation, supporting health systems worldwide and connecting like-minded people through our health care networks. Our extensive network of health care professionals spans over 70 countries and 6 continents. This article by Raquel Santos shows how Human Factors Engineering, with its human-centred perspective, can be structured, in articulation with the other areas of intervention, so as to answer the challenges of safety and efficiency improvement of the sociotechnical system supporting healthcare providing. At Luz Saúde, this area has already been in place for seven years, presently counting with four elements: Raquel Santos, Luísa Ferreira, Carolina Lameiras and Valdemar Costa. Main conclusions of the article Human Factors Engineering can and should play a decisive role in the “reengineering” of a human-centred healthcare providing; Human Factors Engineering should integrate health organizations and prove its value in a more wide-ranging way, so that all interested parties may understand the benefits and feel the need to seek its intervention and collaboration; In this context, examples of systemic, practical and comprehensive applications are required. Read the article Reengineer healthcare: a human factors and ergonomics framework to improve the socio-technical system
