Applying Human Factors to Medical Device Development - Online Course

About this course

During the course, you will learn how myriad HFE activities involving research, use-related risk analysis, user interface design, design evaluation, and validation tie together to form an effective approach to ensure a medical product’s safe, effective, and satisfying use. You will also learn how to scale the activities in an HFE program to match the nature of a particular product, noting that they can range from surgical instruments to complex therapeutic workstations to mobile apps to injection devices. Participants will also learn about the cost and benefits of HFE work so they can budget accordingly. This course provides a strong foundation for the other courses offered, and it a nice complement to prior training in HFE and related topics. Within a 1-month period following the online course, you may schedule a 1-hour, complimentary consultation with the instructors to ask any specific and company-confidential questions about applying HFE to medical products.

Meet the instructors

The instructors are practicing HFE specialists who have decades of cumulative experience applying their craft to the development of medical technology.

Jenny Collinson, research director

Jenny Collinson is a research director with Emergo by UL’s Human Factors Research and Design team, joined in 2021. Her deep medical device industry experience includes more than 15 years in both product development and human factors engineering roles. Collinson has experience in building HFE processes, integrating them into research and development activities, and creating robust human factors engineering strategies, validation plans and documentation that meet the requirements of regulatory bodies. She completed a master’s degree in Applied Ergonomics from the University of Nottingham.

Michael Wiklund, general manager

Michael is responsible for the direction and quality of human factors consulting services that Emergo by UL provides to its clients. He identifies and develops new market opportunities where his consulting team can effectively apply its expertise, focusing specifically on use-safety, effectiveness, and usability. Historically, he has led projects requiring expertise in user interface research, design, prototyping, and usability testing. Michael delivers university and industry courses on user interface design, publishes books and articles on the subject, and makes technical presentations to industry, academic, and government audiences. He also serves as Professor of the Practice at Tufts University where has taught in the Engineering College’s Human Factors Program for over 30 years. In 2005, he co-founded Wiklund Research & Design, a human factors consulting firm that subsequently was acquired by UL in 2012. Michael was inducted as a Corporate Fellow into UL’s William Henry Merrill Society, which includes members of the UL community who are leading authorities in their fields of expertise, in 2018.