Dr. Ashley Hughes is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical and Health Information Sciences (BHIS) at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has over 8 years of experience in the field of human factors, with a specific research focus on how health care teams interact with technologies and leverage HIT (Health IT) to coordinate care. Leveraging her background in human factors and simulation, her research seeks to optimize team workflow, technology fit, training, and the influence of sociotechnical characteristics related to team functioning in healthcare. This research is performed with the mission of enhancing quality of care and patient safety in primary care, surgery, and related care settings.
Dr. Hughes obtained her Masters in Modeling and Simulation and completed her PhD in Applied Experimental Human Factors Psychology at the University of Central Florida. Prior to joining the University of Illinois in Fall 2017, she conducted mentored research in Health Services Research and Development at the Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness, and Safety (IQuESt 2016-17; Dr. Sylvia J. Hysong & Dr. Hardeep Singh) in Houston, TX.

Selected Grants

Veteran Health Affairs Health Service Research & Development, Improving the measurement of VA facility performance to foster a learning healthcare system, Co-Investigator

Midwest Roybal Center for Health Promotion and Translation, Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (ASP) implementation in specialized population, Principal Investigator

Selected Publications

“Teammate familiarity, teamwork, and risk of workplace injury in EMS teams”, Journal of Emergency Nursing

“A comprehensive review of team training in healthcare: Ten questions”, Journal of the Joint Commission for Quality and Patient Safety

“Saving lives: A meta-analysis of team training in healthcare”, Journal of Applied Psychology

“Promoting teamwork in translational medical teams: Insights and recommendations from science and practice”, Journal of Translational Medicine & Epidemiology

Service to the Community

Faculty judge in 2018 AHS Health Tech Jam Faculty facilitator in 2018 Interprofessional Education Day

Leadership in the Profession

Human Factors and Ergonomics Women's Organization for Mentorship and Networking (WOMAN), Co-founder & Taskforce officer

Health Care Technical Group division of Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Chair

Notable Honors

2018 - Schmidt and Hunter Meta-Analysis Award, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Education

Ph.D., Applied Experimental Human Factors Psychology, University of Central Florida, 2015
M.S., Modeling and Simulation, University of Central Florida, 2013
B.S., Psychology, Honors in the major, University of Central Florida, 2010