Staying safe and secure

Usability and human-centred design are key to creating effective and secure medical devices, according to a leading health tech expert. As devices become more connected, they can also be threatened by cyber attackers, leading companies to add in extra security features. However, these measures can make the tech more complex and harder to use, claims Gregg Van Citters, principal quality engineering consultant at Medicept Inc.

Speaking at the MD&M West 2026 conference in California, as reported on the DesignNews website, he said: “If you design a complicated security system, you may get secure but [it could be] completely unusable. Friction leads to frustration, which leads to people trying to circumvent security measures, and that’s what we don’t want.

“It could also be very usable but completely insecure. So, we want to find that happy medium – how we can make something secure but not so secure that it’s unusable, so that people can actually do their job.”

He highlighted the importance of reducing the cognitive load for users, describing it as “the biggest thing you can do”, and stressed the importance of applying human factors engineering principles to understand how users think.

He added: “It’s not about the user making an error. It’s about your system design not preventing that error.”

Read the full article on DesignNews