What a year 2024 has been! As the year draws to a close, we have been reflecting on our progress as a healthcare human factors consultancy. We ran usability research on innovative medical devices that will change patient outcomes for the better, and just happened to have a blast doing it. We are also celebrating several achievements that we are proud of. Here’s a recap of our journey over the past 12 months:
We did a lot of research!
Our 13 researchers completed 72 medical device human factors projects in 2024. We worked on diabetes management tools, injection devices, wearable infusion devices, ultrasound equipment, robotic surgery, reprocessing, anti-choking devices, spinal cord stimulation, and others.
Over the course of the year, we completed over 65 research studies. 37 of them were validation or summative research studies, many of which were included in regulatory submissions. Meanwhile, 29 of our research studies were formative in nature, and included standard formative usability studies, contextual inquiry, focus groups, and interviews.
We did a lot of research, in a lot of places!
Much of our research takes place in Tempe, AZ, where we call home. But we couldn’t stay away from the rest of the country when opportunities arose: We conducted research in 54 cities in 21 different states across the U.S.
We frequented San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, and Boston, but we covered a few small towns along the way.
We did a lot of research, in a lot of places, with a lot of people!
We conducted research sessions with 1,573 participants this year.
We got to hear from all sorts of people! Children, caregivers, rare patients, medical assistants, technicians, technologists, nurses, physician’s assistants, physicians, and specialists all make up the group.
The research participants that we work with are the backbone of everything we do. They represent the end users of the medical devices we seek to improve or validate every day. Without our participants, we don’t get very far, and we are profoundly grateful for their time and their helpful feedback when participating in our studies.
We redesigned our website
Thanks to our partners at Herbst Produkt, our website got a facelift! It sure was a lot of work, but we are proud to unveil our newest look.
While we were at it, we wrote 14 new blog articles. If you count this one, it’s actually 15! We generated content about cognitive resources, usability study moderation, and major design principles like recognition over recall, the Hick-Hyman Law, and affordances in device design!
It has been a pleasure creating these articles. If you have topic recommendations or requests for 2025, let us know!
Our team changed
A few of our ranks moved on to bigger and better things. We celebrate being part of their journeys.
Meanwhile, we added three new researchers and one operations specialist.. A special welcome to Kate, Logan, Nisha, and Carly!
We are looking ahead
Next year, we look forward to doing even more research, in more places, with more people! Improving healthcare by creating usable, safe, and desirable medical devices is what we do, and we will continue doing it.
To those of you who read our blog articles: Thank you for your friendship and support. It has been a pleasure providing content for you, and we hope that you’ve enjoyed what you’ve seen! Be on the lookout for more articles and new content on our YouTube channel in 2025!
From all of us at Research Collective, we wish you a wonderful holiday season and a great start to 2025!
