• Carlos Aceves-González, Yordán Rodríguez, Carlos Manuel Escobar-Galindo, Elizabeth Pérez, Beatriz Gutiérrez-Moreno, Sue Hignett, and Alexandra Rosewall Lang.
• Centro de Investigaciones en Ergonomía, Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico.
• Int J Qual Health Care. 2021 Jan 12; 33 (Supplement_1): 45-50.

BackgroundThe importance of human factors/ergonomics (HFE) is well established in all high-reliability systems but only applied in the healthcare sector relatively recently. Across many sectors, low-/middle-income countries (LMICs) lag behind more economically developed countries in their application of this safety science, due to resource and, in some cases, awareness and expertise. Most previous applications of HFE related to occupational ergonomics rather than healthcare safety.MethodsThe paper details how the reputation of HFE is being developed within healthcare communities of Latin America (LatAm), through increasing awareness and understanding of its role as safety science in the healthcare sector. It starts by articulating the need for HFE and then provides examples from Mexico, Colombia and Peru.ResultsThe practical examples for research and education illustrate a developing awareness of the relevance of HFE to the healthcare sectors in LatAm and an appreciation of its worth to improve health service quality and patient safety through healthcare community engagement. A new LatAm Network of HFE in Healthcare Systems (RELAESA) was formed in 2019, which has provided a platform for HFE advice during the COVID-19 pandemic.ConclusionThere is a real opportunity in LatAm and other LMIC health services to make more rapid and sustainable progress in healthcare-embedded HFE than has been experienced within healthcare services of more developed nations.© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of International Society for Quality in Health Care.

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