Human factors in healthcare最新文献

{"title":"Using a human factors and ergonomic methodology to improve medication safety outcomes in a hospital setting; a systematic review","authors":"Aoife Delaney ,&nbsp;Suzanne McCarthy ,&nbsp;Kirstyn James ,&nbsp;Aoife Fleming","doi":"10.1016/j.hfh.2025.100112","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.hfh.2025.100112","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Introduction</h3><div>Medication errors in healthcare pose a significant global health challenge and are particularly prevalent in hospital settings. Evidence of the application of human factors and ergonomics (HFE) to improve patient safety has been forthcoming over the last two decades. However, there is a dearth of research systematically examining the impact of HFE methodologies to improve medication safety in a hospital setting. We undertook a systematic review to address this current research gap.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Four databases were searched in April 2023 and again in November 2024: EMBASE, PubMed, Web of Science and PsycINFO (EBSCOHOST), as well as reference lists and conference proceedings. All interventional studies using a HFE methodology to improve medication safety in a hospital setting were included. A synthesis of HFE characteristics and medication safety-related outcomes was conducted.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>A total of 30 papers were included, with the majority of these undertaken in a simulated clinical setting (n=16) by specialists working in anaesthetics or paediatrics. Interventions primarily focused on digital health technologies or devices (n=18). HFE methods frequently examined task analysis, usability and workload, and were mainly used to evaluate the intervention. The degree to which HFE was embedded in these studies was variable. Observed or self-reported medication errors were measured in all studies, with two papers also measuring patient mortality. Four studies assessed staff perception of safety.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>The application of HFE methods in medication safety research is variable and not reported in the literature consistently. To effectively integrate HFE methodologies into medication safety research, practitioners should apply a systems-based approach and focus on designing interventions in clinical practice. This process would be further supported by educating staff on HFE principles, learning from other healthcare sciences, and developing standardised reporting guidelines for HFE research in healthcare.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93564,"journal":{"name":"Human factors in healthcare","volume":"8 ","pages":"Article 100112"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145362067","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Prioritization of victims with traumatic bleeding among medical laypeople – An experimental study","authors":"Marc Friberg ,&nbsp;Carl-Oscar Jonson ,&nbsp;Erik Prytz","doi":"10.1016/j.hfh.2025.100116","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.hfh.2025.100116","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Introduction</h3><div>Immediate responders, or medical laypeople, are believed to be a useful resource in trauma response. However, efficiently providing first aid interventions such as bleeding control, in scenarios with multiple casualties require prioritization among several injured victims. This study aims to explore how medical laypeople prioritize among victims in forced choice scenarios.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>A controlled online experiment was conducted where participants were presented with 276 image pairs of victims with simulated injuries. The amount of blood loss (100 ml, 500 ml, 900 ml), gender (man, woman), skin color (light, dark), facial expression (unconscious, in pain) and wound visibility (visible, covered) was manipulated across the image stimuli.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>429 participants completed the experiment. The findings show that victims with greater blood loss are more likely to be prioritized than victims with lower blood loss. Response time indicates that blood loss is likely to be a major factor while prioritizing victims. Victim gender, skin color, facial expression and wound visibility all significantly affect prioritization to some extent.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>This study shows that apparent prioritization biases are to be expected in the prehospital setting during medical emergencies for medical laypeople. Such biases could be mitigated through training and education.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93564,"journal":{"name":"Human factors in healthcare","volume":"8 ","pages":"Article 100116"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145578821","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessing the acceptability of weekly phone outreach and its impact on social connection and symptom monitoring among individuals with serious mental illness","authors":"Freitas AM ,&nbsp;Liang LJ ,&nbsp;Chavez JG ,&nbsp;Calderon R ,&nbsp;Hoffmann L ,&nbsp;Young AS","doi":"10.1016/j.hfh.2025.100111","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.hfh.2025.100111","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objective</h3><div>The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact and acceptability of brief, weekly outreach phone calls that utilized self-report scales surrounding symptoms, social connection, and health behaviors among Veterans with serious mental illness.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Weekly phone calls from research staff were used to collect participants’ self-report scores in various mental and physical health domains to monitor changes in these areas. In addition, qualitative interviews were conducted with participants to assess the acceptability of weekly outreach calls, perceptions on call duration and frequency, and impacts of calls on participants’ sense of social connection and ability to monitor symptoms.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Qualitative results showed that participants were accepting of weekly outreach calls and found them feasible to incorporate into their schedules. Participants reported that calls provided them with a greater sense of social connection, offered support in between visits with providers, encouraged personal reflection of symptom and behavior changes, and were motivational for behavior change. Quantitative results showed that the sample experienced reduced levels of social connection.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions and implications for practice</h3><div>Individuals with serious mental illness in this sample believe it is feasible and acceptable to receive weekly outreach phone calls that collect self-report scores of mental and physical health behaviors and noted these calls can offer a sense of social support and create greater awareness of symptoms. This form of outreach may be valuable in healthcare settings to better monitor fluctuations in patient symptoms and act as a bridge to care for this population.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93564,"journal":{"name":"Human factors in healthcare","volume":"8 ","pages":"Article 100111"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145157646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Hand grip strength of interventional surgeons: A systematic review","authors":"Gráinne Tyrrell ,&nbsp;Leonard O’Sullivan ,&nbsp;Donna Curley ,&nbsp;Eoin White","doi":"10.1016/j.hfh.2025.100110","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.hfh.2025.100110","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Catheter-based cardiovascular devices used by interventional cardiologists are complex and often require both high grip forces and precise dexterity to operate. A lack of understanding of interventional cardiologist’s hand grip strength capabilities contributes to suboptimal medical device design.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>A systematic review of the literature was conducted in January 2025 investigating hand grip strength of interventional cardiologists, and related interventional specialities. Studies published on Scopus, WebOfScience, PubMed and Google Scholar were included in the search. Screening was conducted by two independent reviewers. Full text review and extractions were conducted by one reviewer, subject to cross-check from the second reviewer. Risk of bias was assessed using Critical Appraisal Skills Programme for Cross Sectional Studies. The protocol was registered on PROSPERO (CRD42025646450).</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>The initial search identified 904 citations, with 14 studies eligible for full-text review and five included in the final analysis. The search strategy targeted all grasp types, however only studies reporting upon power grip were found. The results from this review were used to calculate a pooled mean power grip strength of interventional surgeons for both men and women. When compared to the values referenced in AAMI HE75 - Human Factors Engineering guidance, an independent t-test found that the grip strengths were statistically different for women (t = -7.404, p &lt; 0.05) but not for men (t= 1.018, p &gt; 0.05).</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>There is a gap in the existing literature regarding hand grip strength for interventional cardiologists, and more generally interventional surgeons. Reference data for women in AAMI HE75 does not align with actual grip strength of interventional surgeons reported in the literature. Further investigation is needed to determine whether normative data from the general population can be used when designing devices for interventional surgeons.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93564,"journal":{"name":"Human factors in healthcare","volume":"8 ","pages":"Article 100110"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144895889","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Human factors evaluation of an innovative wound care technology","authors":"Anna Bradford ,&nbsp;Kathryn Arnold ,&nbsp;Katherine VanTil ,&nbsp;Jill de Grood ,&nbsp;Kathryn Ambler ,&nbsp;Patty Wickson ,&nbsp;Chester Ho","doi":"10.1016/j.hfh.2025.100108","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.hfh.2025.100108","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;div&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Background&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;div&gt;Pressure injuries and other chronic wounds, such as diabetic foot ulcers and venous leg ulcers, can cause significant pain, increased morbidity and mortality for patients, and result in substantial costs for both the patients and the healthcare system. In the Canadian province of Alberta, a provincial point prevalence audit found one in six patients in acute care facilities had a pressure injury, with 71 % of those deemed hospital-acquired (Alberta Health Services, 2021). As such, the provincial healthcare delivery provider, Alberta Health Services (AHS), wanted to identify an innovative solution to address this problem. In response to this need, NanoSALV Catalytic Advanced Wound Care Treatment Matrix, a Health Canada-approved medical device, was identified by AHS as a promising technology to support wound healing. To help inform decision-making regarding the adoption of this innovative wound care technology, evidence regarding the implementation feasibility of NanoSALV into current practice was needed. The project team conducted a human factors evaluation, gathering perspectives from patients and providers across various environments where these wounds are often treated, including long-term care, in-patient care, outpatient clinics, and patient’s homes.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Methods&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;div&gt;This evaluation was conducted concurrently with a clinical trial assessing NanoSALV's effectiveness in healing chronic wounds unresponsive to current state dressings. The human factors evaluation consisted of observations and interviews, and included 20 participants from multiple roles, including healthcare providers in long-term care, in-patient, and outpatient settings, and patients and family caregivers in home settings. A task analysis was conducted based on the wound dressing observations to better understand the implementation feasibility of NanoSALV, compared to a selected current state silver-based dressing, AQUACEL Ag+. Thematic analysis and journey mapping were conducted based on participant interviews to compare the user experience and satisfaction between NanoSALV and the current state from different patient and provider perspectives.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Results&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;div&gt;The evaluation indicated that the procedures for changing wound dressings, whether using the current state dressing or NanoSALV, followed the same sequence of steps, with NanoSALV requiring fewer subtasks in the application step, demonstrating the feasibility of implementing NanoSALV into clinical practice. Desirability from the perspective of each of the settings (i.e., long-term care, in-patient, outpatient, and at-home management) for NanoSALV adoption included its ease of application and potential to enhance patient independence and participation in wound care. Some areas for improvement include better communication of the appropriate amount of product needed and making the product packaging easier to open.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Conclusion&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;div&gt;It","PeriodicalId":93564,"journal":{"name":"Human factors in healthcare","volume":"8 ","pages":"Article 100108"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144757956","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Why do escalation pathways fail? A human factors perspective on early warning systems in acute Irish hospitals","authors":"Sue Markey ,&nbsp;Liam Chadwick ,&nbsp;Emily O’Dowd ,&nbsp;Eva M Doherty","doi":"10.1016/j.hfh.2025.100117","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.hfh.2025.100117","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Early Warning Systems (EWS) enhance patient outcomes by reducing mortality, cardiac arrests, unplanned critical care admissions, length of stay, and serious adverse events. The Irish National Early Warning System (INEWS) V.2, launched in 2020, requires nurses to monitor vital signs and trigger responses via an escalation protocol involving physicians of varying seniority. While escalation pathways are clearly defined, barriers persist that hinder appropriate escalation of care, resulting in a ‘failure to escalate,’ which increases the likelihood of ‘failure to rescue’: failure to deliver the interventions needed to mitigate patient deterioration.</div></div><div><h3>Aims</h3><div>To identify and evaluate the barriers and enablers influencing nurses and physicians in escalating care for deteriorating patients in acute Irish hospitals.</div></div><div><h3>Design</h3><div>A mixed-methods empirical study underpinned by a human factors’ perspective.</div></div><div><h3>Method</h3><div>Semi-structured, stakeholder-specific focus groups were conducted with nurses, junior and senior physicians at two Irish hospitals. One focus group for each stakeholder per hospital resulting in a total of six focus groups. Thematic analysis of focus group data was guided by a human factors’ sociotechnical systems framework. Insights were subsequently used to design a survey aimed at quantifying key barriers and enablers across a broader sample of healthcare staff.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Three key emerging themes are reported: governance, teamwork, and communication. A notable enabler was the concept of \"home-base wards\" (home wards), which facilitated better teamwork, communication, and escalation of care. These findings align with international literature on escalation of care.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>This study underscores the value of a human factors approach in addressing barriers and enablers to care escalation. Home wards were identified as a critical enabler with potential to enhance teamwork, communication, and patient safety. Future research should explore the broader impact of home wards on escalation processes, with particular attention to their role in fostering effective teamwork and communication.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93564,"journal":{"name":"Human factors in healthcare","volume":"8 ","pages":"Article 100117"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145623116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An industry perspective of challenges and opportunities in medical extended reality technology adoption","authors":"Bethany Juhnke ,&nbsp;Kathryn R. Marusich ,&nbsp;Arthur G. Erdman","doi":"10.1016/j.hfh.2025.100113","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.hfh.2025.100113","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Extended reality (XR) technology—including virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality—has long been proposed as the future for the medical industry. However, the risk-adverse nature of the industry contrasts the “fail hard, fail often, fail fast” mantra of Silicon Valley, contributing to slower than anticipated adoption of XR technology in the field. Numerous research efforts have explored specific XR technologies for the medical industry, but research about the people and the companies developing the technology is lacking. We surveyed 40 industry professionals to understand personnel and company demographics, motivations, resources, operations, testing, challenges, and opportunities to improve technology adoption.</div><div>Companies are challenged with recruiting personnel, from the standard talent pipelines, who have the wide-range and interdisciplinary technical skillsets required to develop XR technology. Hardware and software preferences are continually changing as technology advances and supporting external XR infrastructure remains difficult.</div><div>Additionally, the technology is still too novel to gain sufficient support from regulatory bodies. Although XR technology remains novel in the medical setting, participants shared that building a business case, developing industry standards, improving user experiences, and an XR industry push rather than a market pull would help drive this adoption. Overall, this study highlighted the complexity of medical XR technology and the challenges to reach ubiquitous XR technology in the medical industry.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93564,"journal":{"name":"Human factors in healthcare","volume":"8 ","pages":"Article 100113"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145578822","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Surgeon hand size and grip strength for the design of surgical instruments","authors":"Chloe Miller ,&nbsp;Lora Cavuoto ,&nbsp;Ramon Berguer ,&nbsp;Gyusung Lee","doi":"10.1016/j.hfh.2025.100106","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.hfh.2025.100106","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Hand size and poor surgical instrument design have been identified as risk factors for musculoskeletal injuries among surgeons. However, there is a lack of large databases of anthropometric data to support the surgical instrument design process. The goals of this study were to document hand size and grip strength for a large group of surgeons and to investigate the relationships between these measures and demographic characteristics.</div></div><div><h3>Study design</h3><div>A cross-sectional observational study was conducted at the ACS Surgical Ergonomics Hand-on Clinic at the Clinical Congress 2022. The length and breadth of the dominant hand and the grip strength of both hands were measured from 220 surgeons (123 male, 97 female). Participants also completed a demographic questionnaire, including age, stature, gender, glove size, surgical specialty, and experience.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Hand length and breadth were significantly different by gender (length males = 19.1 cm and females = 17.3 cm, <em>p</em> &lt; 0.01; breadth males = 8.8 cm and females = 7.7 cm, <em>p</em> &lt; 0.01). The median glove size was 7. Female hand grip strength was approximately 68 % of that of the males (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.01). Average grip strength was equivalent across age groups.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>This study provided important hand size and grip strength data that can be used by surgical instrument developers to implement more inclusive instrument designs. The sample of over 200 surgeons provides one of the largest datasets collected using in-person measurement methods. The grip strength findings indicate that the surgeons were consistent with the general US adult population.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93564,"journal":{"name":"Human factors in healthcare","volume":"7 ","pages":"Article 100106"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144263386","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Prevalence of bed falls among inpatients in Iranian hospitals: A meta-analysis","authors":"Parvaneh Isfahani ,&nbsp;Mohammad Sarani ,&nbsp;Mina Salajegheh ,&nbsp;Somayeh Samani ,&nbsp;Aliyeh Bazi ,&nbsp;Mahdieh Poodineh Moghadam ,&nbsp;Fatemeh Boulagh ,&nbsp;Mahnaz Afshari","doi":"10.1016/j.hfh.2025.100093","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.hfh.2025.100093","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Falling out of hospital beds can reduce patients’ satisfaction, increase their length of stay and mortality, reduce hospital productivity, and increase health system costs. The present research aimed to determine the prevalence of bed falls among inpatients in Iranian hospitals.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>This study was a meta-analysis. All the articles on the prevalence of bed fall in Iranian hospitals were extracted from five databases as well as the Google Scholar search engine and their quality was assessed. The heterogeneity of the studies was tested using the I² index and the meta-regression model at the 0.05 significance level. Finally, the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software analyzed six articles that met the inclusion criteria.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Based on the estimation of a random effects model, the prevalence of bed falls in Iranian hospitals was 19.9 % (7.7 %-42.6 %; 95 % CI). The highest prevalence was observed in Kermanshah province in 2014 at 92 % (80.5 %-97.0 %; 95 % CI) and the lowest prevalence was observed in Tabriz in 2015 at 6 % (3.4 %-10.4 %%; 95 % CI). Moreover, there were significant relationships between sample size, average age, and the prevalence of bed falls among inpatients (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.05).</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>The findings indicate that the prevalence of bed falls is high among hospitalized patients in Iran, with considerable implications for patient safety and healthcare costs. Addressing this issue requires targeted interventions focusing on environmental safety, staff training, and patient education to mitigate fall risks effectively.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93564,"journal":{"name":"Human factors in healthcare","volume":"7 ","pages":"Article 100093"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143273274","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistants to understand their potential to support older adults’ search needs","authors":"Emily M. Langston ,&nbsp;Varitnan Hattakitjamroen ,&nbsp;Mario Hernandez ,&nbsp;Hye Soo Lee ,&nbsp;Hannah Ç. Mason ,&nbsp;Willencia Louis-Charles ,&nbsp;Neil Charness ,&nbsp;Sara J. Czaja ,&nbsp;Wendy A. Rogers ,&nbsp;Joseph Sharit ,&nbsp;Walter R. Boot","doi":"10.1016/j.hfh.2025.100092","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.hfh.2025.100092","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objective</h3><div>We investigated the accuracy and amount of information provided by artificial intelligence (AI)-powered virtual assistants in response to queries relevant to aging adults in the domains of Medicare, long-term care insurance, and resource access.</div></div><div><h3>Background</h3><div>Older adults are faced with complex decisions and must gather and integrate information from diverse sources to help support these decisions (e.g., across various websites and online resources). Information-seeking, integration, and decision-making are cognitively demanding and can be impacted by age-related cognitive changes. Virtual assistants powered by AI have the potential to provide older adults with easy access to information and answers to their queries. However, it is unclear how accurate this information and these answers might be.</div></div><div><h3>Method</h3><div>Alexa, Google Assistant, Bard, and ChatGPT-4 were queried. Coders assessed the accuracy of these responses, and the amount of supplemental information provided as a measure of response complexity.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Overall, Large Language Model (LLM)-based virtual assistants (Bard, ChatGPT-4) responded more accurately than non-LLM assistants (e.g., 6 % inaccurate responses for Bard vs. 60 % for Alexa) and provided substantially more supplemental information (79 % of responses with high supplemental information for Bard and 37 % for Chat-GPT, vs. 20 % or less for others). We note, however, that responses can vary over time.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>Based on their ability to provide largely accurate responses, LLMs may be helpful tools for older adults seeking information related to health, insurance, and available resources. However, the potential for error, high response complexity, and response variability should be considered.</div></div><div><h3>Application</h3><div>LLM-based virtual assistants may be a helpful tool for older adults seeking information to support health and financial decisions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93564,"journal":{"name":"Human factors in healthcare","volume":"7 ","pages":"Article 100092"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143164005","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}