Dr. Christopher Perkes is an Anesthesiologist at Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. His non-clinical pursuits have included serving as an Anesthesia Medical Director (Quinte Health), Premesis Inspection Committee member for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, and delivering a Canadian Anesthesiology Society presentation on Ergonomics for the Anesthesiologist. His interest in ergonomics began in 2018 when he suffered a back injury that threatened his career.

In this episode, Dr. Perkes:

- Shares how his own injury (herniated L5/S1 intervertebral disc) sparked his interest in ergonomics

- Discusses the ergonomic risks faced by anesthesia providers in their daily work and the factors that keep people from getting help when their symptoms first develop

- Emphazised the importance of working with a specialist (physical therapist, occupational therapist or ergonomist) to analyze our postures in our workflow

- Outlines practical steps that practitioners can take to set up their environment ergonomically and also advocate for ergonomic equipment

- Shared his thoughts on how good ergonomics can be incorporated into residency training and practicing providers

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This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Smart Step Surgical LLC. You can learn about them and schedule a demo via https://www.smartstepsurgical.com/blogs/news/surgical-ergonomic-podcast-promotional-discount

Disclosure:

Smart Step Surgical is a paid sponsor and the affiliate link above supports the podcast at no cost to you. They also provide our podcast listeners with a discount (20%), so we hope that it is a win-win!

Episode details:

Ms. Jeannette Wagner is a Surgical Technologist and is Team Lead in the operating rooms at University of Iowa Health Care, Stead Family Children’s Hospital. She oversees multiple services along with scrubbing a large variety of surgeries. Her true passion is scrubbing pediatric cardiac and takes pride in being a part of the surgical team. An important part of her role as Team Lead is education for staff and training Surgical Technologists, as well as nurses to the scrub role. She is a dedicated and motivated professional with a passion for lifelong learning and personal growth. She is a member of the Scheduling Committee in her department and in the past was a member and chair of the UPC council for SFCH surgical department. Her personal interests include spending time with her family and 3 granddaughters, being out in nature and always willing to take on new challenges and expand her skills.

In this episode Ms. Wagner:

- Shares the MSK issues she has faced over her almost 30-year career as a scrub technologist, including needing surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome and a shoulder injury

- Emphasized that there is a lack of education around ergonomics in the training of scrub technologists

-Discusses data that shows OR nurses have high rates of MSK injuries when compared to nurses working in other hospital environments and that back injuries are the most common MSK issue

- Describes some of the barriers to implementing ergonomic best practices among OR scrub staff

- Provides tips on handling the power differential in the OR when it comes to utilizing ergonomic aids

- Emphasizes how communication between surgeons and techs can ease access to the field and improve ergonomics for everyone

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Dr. Jackie Cha is the Patricia Flatley Brennan Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Her research focuses on measuring physical human-robot interactions, particularly in healthcare environments, to improve worker performance, safety, and system efficiency. Her team investigates applications of robotics – both surgical robotic systems and wearables – in clinical environments and the changes of physical and cognitive interactions between human teams and robots. Prior to joining UW-Madison, she served as an assistant professor at Clemson University. Her research has been funded by several sponsors such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) (including the NSF CAREER award), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

In this episode Dr. Cha:

- Explains what exoskeletons are and the difference between active and passive exoskeletions

- Shares how exoskeletons have been used to reduce strain in industrial sectors (as PPE)

- Describes why adapting exoskeletons to the OR is especially challenging i.e. due to the large physical and cognitive load intrinsic to OR work

- Shares the work she and others have done evaluating exoskeletons for the OR both in the simulation environment and in actual OR rooms

- Discusses the pros and cons of currently available exoskeletons in terms of adapting them to surgical work

The Society of Surgical Ergonomics webinar on exoskeletons can be found here:https://www.societyofsurgicalergonomics.org/copy-of-video-library

The recent study with qualitative and objective data with use of a neck/back exoskeleton can be found here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40201977/

Dr. Jackie Cha can be reached via Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackiecha/

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