The HXRI lab members attended the the 2024 HFES – Human Factors and Ergonomics Society International Healthcare Symposium at Chicago Hilton from March 25th till March 27th. The lab members had the chance to engage with professionals in the healthcare technology sector, discussing human factors and current industry trends. A standout moment was Rollin J. Terry Fairbanks’ keynote speech, where he emphasized the importance of collaboration between healthcare workers and human factor experts in developing safe and efficient medical products and devices. Another intriguing session was led by Shannon Bailey, Ashley Hughes, Jessica Ray, and Prof. Caroline Cao from ISE, focusing on “Extended Reality Applications for Simulating Human Factors Interventions.” Additionally, meeting Russ Branaghan, the author of the book “Humanizing Healthcare: Human Factors for Medical Device Design,” which is a book used in Health Technology master, was particularly inspiring.

THE HXRI lab members Emre and Qiyuan presented a poster named “A Systematic Classification of Virtual Reality Systems and Interventions on the Quality of Life for Older Adults”, which is a research study regarding the CREATE VR project in collaboration Human Factors and Aging Lab. In this study, they did an extensive literature review for the classification of virtual reality (VR) systems for older adults, and reported the results for HFES community. Overall, the conferences became a fruitful way of building a good network from researchers who work in human factors and healthcare applications.