Our human factors team is growing

03 Aug 2023 3min read

Since our first Human Factors (HF) project in 1999, Team Consulting has been at the forefront of usability testing and user-centred design. As we continue to expand into new medical sectors, we’ve been growing our HF team to continue helping our clients develop devices that are regulatory compliant and loved by end users.

The latest member of our HF team is Andrea Pisa, a senior human factors consultant who has spent the past 10 years working in human factors engineering and medical device development. We spoke to Andrea to find out more about her experience and what she’s hoping to achieve at Team.

How do you apply human factors to medical device development?

“I have worked in medical product development for over 10 years now. During my career I’ve split my time across consultancy and in-house manufacturing, working on a variety of medical device, drug delivery and digital health solutions. Having started out in design engineering before transitioning to human factors, I’m passionate about how the intersection of these disciplines can lead to better products. There is a clear need to ensure that usability and user needs are addressed, while also considering commercial and technical constraints such as manufacturing needs and timelines. I strive to follow a holistic approach to HF, making sure that usability insights are both tangible and realistic.”

Why is human factors engineering important?

“HF offers a wonderful bridge between the development process and the real world, allowing you to have direct contact with the end user, whether that’s a patient, care giver, nurse or doctor. It’s great to be able to validate that the designs we create will actively improve someone’s life and have real meaning. As human factors specialists, our role within medical product development has the opportunity to go beyond regulatory requirements, leading to solutions that are not only safe and effective in use but that also provide an engaging and dignified user experience. By taking this approach, we can start addressing challenging issues such as treatment nonadherence.”

How can we improve medical device usability?

“One of the things I’m passionate about is looking at how medical devices can be designed to work with a wider range of users across a global market. Having led user research across five continents, I’ve seen there is a clear need to ensure that representative and diverse users are included in development. As medical device developers, we need to be attuned to varying anthropometric, cultural and systemic factors, making sure the products we develop are empathetic to how people and health systems differ across the world.”

What are you hoping to achieve at Team?

“Collaboration is an essential part of medical device development, so I’m really excited about working with the many industry experts across Team’s disciplines. I’m also looking forward to continue driving representative user studies and ensuring that the devices we develop work for all users.”

Human factors at Team Consulting

To date, Team has completed over 350 human factors projects for over 60 clients, including nine of the top ten pharmacos. We have conducted user studies on over 8,000 participants, applying these insights to help our clients deliver user-centred and regulatory compliant medical devices.

Find out more about our human factors offering here.