Ergonomics of the Anesthesia Workspace

Ergonomics is a discipline that investigates and applies information about human requirements, characteristics, abilities, and limitations to the design, development, engineering, and testing of equipment, tools, systems, and jobs. The objectives of ergonomists are to improve safety, performance, and well-being by optimizing the relationship between people and their work environment. Ergonomics is the discipline of designing and testing the human/systems interface with the goal of improving the interactions between the liveware component and the other components. In the broadest terms, ergonomics deals with the study and enhancement of the tools and systems used by humans to interact with the physical world around them. Ergonomics is both a science and a profession, encompassing both research and application. One goal of ergonomics research is to understand and describe the capabilities and limitations of human performance. Another is to develop principles of interaction between people and machines.