Human Factors in Medical Devices and Systems (Online Certificate)
Certificate
Application Deadlines
Fall: Jun 1
Spring: Sep 15 (international); Dec 15 (domestic)
Summer: n/a
School/Department
Mechanical Engineering
Contact
gradadmissions@tufts.edu
Location
Remote
Format
OnlineCommitment Options
Part-timeAverage Duration
12 - 24 months
Credits
4 courses
Career Outcomes
The need for human factor specialists in the medical device and systems industry is stronger than ever before. The role of human factors engineers is crucial to ensuring the safe, effective, and satisfying use of medical devices, including those that deliver drugs and perform life-critical tests. Their expertise is valued in a variety of contexts, making contributions to new product development, consulting firms, and organizations directly engaged in delivering medical care to patients, among others.
A widely cited report published in 2016 suggests at least 250,000 patients die each year due to medical error, making it the third leading cause of death in the USA. A large percentage of these deaths are related to poor user interface design. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) now requires the manufacturers to Class II and III devices to apply human factors engineering throughout the device development process and validate that representative users can operate them safely.
Online Experience
Tufts instructors use technology and adapted teaching methods to make the remote study experience fulfilling, engaging, and rewarding. Here are some of the ways our instructors make your experience a good one:
- Synchronous (live) teaching and discussion sessions
- Team assignments requiring people to work together,
- Recorded and live guest speakers
- Online quizzes for education and fun
- Assignments requiring fieldwork in the student’s locale
- Access to instructors for informal academic/professional guidance and mentoring
Who Should Apply?
- Individuals with at least a bachelor's degree in a related discipline (or work experience) who wish to focus their career on medical devices and systems.
- Scientists, engineers, and other professionals who seek a deeper understanding of human factors to enhance the work in which they are already involved.
- Project and product managers who also seek a deeper understanding of human factors, enabling them to achieve the goal of developing and commercializing medical devices and systems.
- Individuals working to improve patient safety, noting that greater safety comes from optimizing the quality of interaction between medical devices and systems and their users.
Faculty
Research Interests:
navigation, safety-critical transportation systems, state estimation, human-robot interaction
Research Interests:
human factors, airspace systems
Research Interests:
Human Factors Engineering, Innovation, Design Thinking, AI-powered Innovation and R&D, Human Machine System Design, Robotics, Machine Learning, Perception, Psychology
Research Interests:
machine design, nondestructive testing
Research Interests:
human factors
Research Interests:
sustainable energy, superconducting materials, materials science
Research Interests:
biophysics and soft matter, microscale fluid mechanics and transport phenomena, microfluidic devices
Research Interests:
heat transfer, apparent slip, thermal management of electronics, mass transfer in supercritical fluids and thermoelectricity, material science
Research Interests:
Mechanics of materials; effective properties of heterogeneous materials; microstructure-property relationships; applications to material science
Research Interests:
Fluid mechanics, flow in the human body, hemodynamics, aneurysms, heart development, flow in tumors, cardiac assist devices
Research Interests:
solidification processes, thermal manufacturing, machine design, materials science
Research Interests:
GPS, emerging satellite navigation systems
Research Interests:
Engineering Education, Human Robot Interaction, Mechanical Engineering, Music Engineering, Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing
Research Interests:
materials engineering, materials science, manufacturing processes, quality control
Research Interests:
Artificial Intelligence, Developmental Robotics, Computational Perception, Robotic Manipulation, Machine Learning, Human-Robot and Human-Computer Interaction
Research Interests:
Spatial Cognition, Language, Memory
Research Interests:
Interaction of light with matter, physics of nanostructures and interfaces, metamaterials, material science, plasmonics, and surfactants, semiconductor photonics and electronics, epitaxial crystal growth, materials and devices for energy and infrared applications.
Research Interests:
learning sciences, engineering education, design practices, design discourse, project-based learning
Research Interests:
Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) fabrication, modeling, and testing. Particularly acoustic MEMS (microphones, ultrasound), and aerodynamic measurement technologies (skin friction sensors, aeroacoustic sensors). Acoustics, vibrations, dynamics and controls. Electromechanical systems including robotics. Finite element methods and system modeling. Electronics for measurement. Mechanical measurements.
Research Interests:
novel polymer electrolytes for batteries, liquid crystal polymers, composite materials, materials science
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