The success of telehealth applications is dependent upon a number of considerations, many of which are related to human factors(HF): how humans interact with technical systems during use, training, and maintenance. Formed in the spring of 2003, the mission of the Human Factors Special Interest Group (SIG) is:

• To promote the conscious integration of human factors into telemedicine and e-health systems by first providing education in the practical use of HF principles and methodologies, and second by reaching out to the designers and vendors of telemedicine technology and systems
• To make HF a significant design and operational component of a modern, technologically enabled health care system
• To promote and provide education on human factors principles and methodologies in the use of telecommunications technology in healthcare
• To provide a forum for ATA members to exchange information and network in areas related to human factors in various application settings

Areas of focus for the coming year:

• Form a task force to plan and design a short course for future ATA annual meetings.
• Form a task force to develop Human Factors evaluation guidelines that can be applied to telemedicine projects.
• Identify areas of interest shared with other ATA SIGs for potential future collaboration.