Hi, Liz here- Editor-in-Chief for Healthcare Packaging.
One of the biggest topic themes that came out of Pharmapack last week was designing for human factors. Many sessions included experts weighing in on designing pharmaceutical and medical devices with the user in mind. This included designing for an emergency, designing for inclusivity for people with handicap or dexterity issues, as well as designing to ensure patient adherence. But are we taking this human factors thing too far? Some experts agreed that while it is important, ultimately patient safety and adherence remain the most important thing. Another way of thinking about this is asking yourself, what do we give up when we design for human factors, what are we sacrificing; cost, sustainability, or something else? Stay tuned as ramp up our coverage on deigning for human factors and the many facets to this topic.