About Us
Our Vision
We help healthcare providers improve outcomes for patients by designing care that is safe, effective, efficient and person-centred. Using human factors, we strengthen decision-making, service design and organisational culture so you can achieve measurable reductions in harm and reliable improvements in performance.
Why Human Factors?
Healthcare is complex: patients’ needs vary, teams work under pressure, and care is delivered across very different settings. Human factors helps you understand how work is really done, design systems that support staff performance, and learn effectively from both success and harm. We build your capacity for complexity so care can be tailored to individuals while remaining practical and deliverable for teams.
Why Promethean HD?
We specialise in applying human factors in healthcare to help providers deliver safe, effective, affordable, person-centred care, and demonstrate to regulators that services are safe and well-led. We support you to:
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Design and implement services, pathways, processes and work systems that work for patients and staff.
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Investigate and learn from incidents, complaints and success, strengthening learning without blame.
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Strengthen governance and assurance so decision-making is clear, evidence-based and insight-driven.
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Build capability through coaching, mentoring and practical tools that teams can use day to day.
Every project is led by Chartered Ergonomist/Human Factors experts and delivered to consistently high professional standards. We have 20+ years’ investigation experience, including 13+ years focused on healthcare safety investigations. We help clinicians and leaders apply proven approaches from safety-critical industries to build high-performing, reliable organisations.
We also bring senior and executive governance experience from both NHS and independent healthcare. This means we can connect board assurance to the realities of frontline work, helping Boards apply the same design discipline to information, assurance and decision-making that safety-critical industries rely on.
Meet the team:
Steve Franklin, MSc, C.ErgHF, MCIEHF, CG (Affiliate), leads Promethean Human Designs Ltd (Promethean HD). He has 13+ years’ experience applying human factors in healthcare and brings senior and executive governance experience from both NHS and independent providers.
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Lecturer at Teesside University (undergraduate and postgraduate) teaching human factors to human factors students, allied health professionals and clinicians.
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Published healthcare human factors research in Applied Ergonomics.
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Reviewer for the Hospital Environments track of the HFES 2027 International Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care. This role reflects his continuing commitment to applying human factors principles to improve healthcare systems, environments and outcomes.
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Member of the CIEHF “Theory of Change” group supporting wider integration of human factors in healthcare.
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Trustee of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors
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Affiliate Member of the Chartered Governance Institute, connecting governance practice with safety and improvement.
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Former Freedom to Speak Up Guardian; champion of psychological safety and just culture.
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Registered coach (Chartered Governance Institute) and mentor (CIEHF).
Affiliations
Katie Franklin. Operational Director | Champion for Inclusive Work Design.
She brings curiosity, empathy and constructive challenge to Promethean HD’s work. As Operational Director, she helps ensure that the company’s services remain practical, inclusive and connected to the experiences of the people working within complex systems.
Particular interests include women’s ergonomics, workplace design, psychological safety, cognitive bias and organisational culture. Katie is especially interested in the behaviours and assumptions that become accepted as “normal”, and in how different perspectives can reveal barriers, risks and opportunities for improvement.
Through relatable writing and thoughtful advocacy, Katie Franklin helps make human factors relevant beyond technical or professional audiences. Her perspective supports Promethean HD’s ambition to create systems and workplaces in which people can contribute, speak up and perform at their best.
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Operational Director of Promethean HD, supporting the delivery and development of the company’s services.
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Human factors and ergonomics advocate with a particular interest in women’s ergonomics and workplace design.
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Contributor on inclusive work design, psychological safety, organisational culture and diversity of thought.
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Writer exploring how human factors applies to everyday work, caregiving and the wider human experience.
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Advocate for recognising overlooked voices and designing systems that enable people to contribute and speak up.
