Criticality of Human Factors work

Human Factors (HF) work is essential for effective device development and regulatory approval. While HF guarantees a consistent focus on users, aligning HF with product development and meeting ever-increasing regulatory requirements is a challenge in itself. Particularly when bringing combination products to market, taking over a yet unfamiliar platform product and onboarding all necessary partners adds up and requires a considerable amount of time and effort.

Introducing Ypsomed HF services

With Ypsomed HF services, we are committed to simplify this journey, providing our pharmaceutical partners a single point of contact and to help making self-medication more accessible to patients at home. Extending our platform approach with integrated HF services, we strive to minimize risks for the market approval, expedite the time to market for combination products and further streamlining processes to increase agility and efficiency for our pharmaceutical partners. For this, we provide the necessary HF expertise and incorporate learnings from past projects to efficiently navigate the regulatory process.

Because we are already familiar with the development journey of the medical device and combination product, we will deliver a product fully compliant with international regulatory requirements for HF.

By using Ypsomed HF services, you benefit from:

Ypsomed HF services program

We support you with our team of HF specialists end-to-end in the product development process – from use-related risk analysis, custom instructions for use (IFU) and labelling design, to formative HF studies, managing FDA correspondence, and HF validation study planning and execution. For this, our pharmaceutical partners only need to provide the input of intended use and target markets of the combination product. We take care of all HF-related activities and lead this part of the project, supported by our US-based partner Interface Analysis Associates (IAA).

Strategic partnership with IAA

To secure long-term access to cutting-edge HF capabilities and testing facilities in the US, Ypsomed has entered into a strategic partnership with Interface Analysis Associates LCC (IAA), a leading HF consultancy in business since 1993. IAA is led by Dr. Anthony D. Andre, CPE, a renowned expert in Human Factors for medical devices and drug delivery combination products. IAA has an unparalleled track record of evaluating, designing, or testing more than 1000 products for over 400 clients in a variety of domains. The partnership with IAA enables Ypsomed to access specialized resources that support the HF to successfully bring the product to market and make the user experience as good as possible for the intended users. This includes effective FDA correspondence and HF validation study protocol submission.

We chose IAA as our partner because they support our mission with their

Published examples of our HF activities

Over the past decade, we have built strong in-house expertise along the entire HF journey, from basic research in the user perspective of drug delivery to formative HF evaluation studies and detailed usability testing with eye-tracking. The following examples provide a brief insight into our work.

Schneider A, Kolrep H, Horn HP, Jordi C, Gierig S & Lange J (2023), “Understanding patient preferences for handheld autoinjectors versus wearable large-volume injectors”, Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery, 20:2, 273-283, DOI: 10.1080/17425247.2022.2162037

Lange J, Schneider A, Jordi C, Lau M & Disher T (2021), “Formative Study on the Wearability and Usability of a Large-Volume Patch Injector”, Medical Devices: Evidence and Research, 14:, 363-377, DOI: 10.2147/MDER.S337670

Schneider A, Richard P, Mueller P, Jordi C, Yovanoff M & Lange J (2021), “User-Centric Approach to Specifying Technical Attributes of Drug Delivery Devices: Empirical Study of Autoinjector-Cap Removal Forces”, Patient Preference and Adherence, 15:, 159-168, DOI: 10.2147/PPA.S298725

Schneider A, Mueller P, Jordi C, Richard P, Sneeringer P, Nayyar R, Yovanoff M & Lange J (2020), “Hold the device against the skin: the impact of injection duration on user’s force for handheld autoinjectors”, Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery, 17:2, 225-236, DOI: 10.1080/17425247.2020.1704730

Lohmeyer Q, Schneider A, Jordi C, Lange J & Meboldt M (2019), “Toward a new age of patient centricity? The application of eye-tracking to the development of connected self-injection systems”, Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery, 16:2, 163-175, DOI: 10.1080/17425247.2019.1563070

Schneider A, Kolrep H, Jordi C, Richard P, Horn HP & Lange J (2019), “How to prevent medication errors: a multidimensional scaling study to investigate the distinguishability between self-injection platform device variants”, Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery, 16:8, 883-894, DOI: 10.1080/17425247.2019.1637852

Lange J & Nemeth T (2018), “Formative usability evaluation of a fixed-dose pen-injector platform device”, Medical Devices: Evidence and Research, 11:105-112, DOI: 10.2147/MDER.S159733

Schneider A & Lange J (2018), “Pen devices for self-injection: contrasting measured injection force with users’ perceived ease of injection”, Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery, 15:2, 115-125, DOI: 10.1080/17425247.2018.1415884

Lange J, Richard P & Bradley N (2015), “Usability of a new disposable autoinjector platform device: results of a formative study conducted with a broad user population”, Medical Devices: Evidence and Research, 8, 255-264, DOI: 10.2147/MDER.S85938

Lange J, Richard P & Bradley N (2014), “Usability of devices for self-injection: results of a formative study on a new disposable pen injector”, Medical Devices: Evidence and Research, 7, 95-203, DOI: 10.2147/MDER.S63918