By Geeta Lal, MD, MSc, FACS, FRCSC, President; Susan Hallbeck, PhD, PE, CPE, President-Elect; Philip I. Haigh, MD, MSc, FACS, FRCSC,...

It has been a lovely but very busy Fall season, during which I’ve given several invited talks on the topic of surgical ergonomics....

It was several months after my C5-C6 spine disk replacement surgery when I learned that it is commonplace for surgeons to have C5-C7 cervical spine problems. Interesting. Why had I never heard of this before? Not once during training, during my time as an attending or after participating in numerous surgical conferences had I ever come across this information. But clear as day, to others, my problem was not unique. I was just another surgeon suffering the same spine problems

In a previous post, I described why surgeons develop many work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSD). Almost everyone develops muscle...

“Can you sniff the incision? Does it smell good?” asked the Senior attending I was working with that day in my PGY2 year. I was perplexed...

The term “ergonomics” refers to the scientific study of human work. Over the last century, Industrial ergonomics has identified many...

Improving ergonomics in the OR involves looking at both the surgeon and their work environment. While certain aspects of both these...