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!

Dr. David Berger is a physician executive and former hospital CEO turned digital health advisor — helping early-stage startups and healthcare investors navigate the complexity of building and scaling in the healthcare system. With 30+ years of leadership experience in care delivery, he now works with founders and VCs to bring clinically sound, operationally feasible innovation to market.

In this episode Dr. Berger:

- Shares details about his career pivots, including his journey dealing with work-related MSK issues

- Describes how he navigated coming back to work after the multiple surgeries he needed, including altering his practice from full-scale surgical oncology to do mainly shorter cases due to ongoing symptoms

- Discusses how hospital leaders (including Chairs of Surgery) can and should track lost days of work from MSK injury and support initiatives aimed at improving ergonomics in procedural specialties.

- Shares why and how surgical societies, including the American College of Surgeons and the ACGME can take steps to highlight the issue of the high rates of MSK injuries among surgeons

You can reach Dr. Berger via his Linked in profile here.

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This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Sunoptic Surgical. You can learn about them and schedule a demo via https://sunopticsurgical.com/surgicalergonomics/

Disclosure:

Sunoptic Surgical is a paid sponsor and the affiliate link above supports the podcast at no cost to you.

Dr. Sara White is a veterinarian and has worked in mixed animal, small animal, shelter medicine and High-Quality, High-Volume Spay Neuter (HQHVSN) practices. Since 2006, Sara has operated Spay ASAP Inc, a nonprofit MASH-style mobile spay/neuter clinic. While working in spay-neuter, Sara developed an interest in ergonomics, health, wellbeing, and injury in veterinarians and staff, and completed a Masters of Science in Health Ergonomics from University of Derby in the UK. She has been named Veterinarian of the Year by the Association of Shelter Veterinarians, coauthored the Association of Shelter Veterinarians Spay Neuter Guidelines and is the editor of the textbook High-Quality, High-Volume Spay and Neuter and Other Shelter Surgeries

In this episode, Dr. White:

- Shares her journey into working in a high-volume spay/neuter practice and how that sparked her interest in ergonomics

-Describes the high rate of work-related MSK injuries among veterinarians and especially those in high volume spay-neuter practices. The period prevalence of MSD was 99.1%, with 76.7% experiencing hand or wrist pain and 98.2% experiencing body pain. Further details can be found here: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/3/1/85

- Emphasizes that increasing career length, increasing weekly hours in surgery and decreasing job satisfaction were the work-related factors with the greatest relative risk of hand pain severity and total pain. Interestingly, gender differences were not as prominent in her study, possibly because of the lack of instrument and hand size mismatch in the veterinary population

- Shares that there wasn't any formal ergonomics training when she trained in veterinary medicine, however, there is now some incorporation of ergonomics teaching in programs and textbooks

- Describes her journey into coaching veterinarians about ergonomics

You can reach Dr. White via her website ergovet.com or via LinkedIn

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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

Follow us on LinkedIn, X, Instagram and Facebook and please reach out to us if you have any suggestions regarding episode ideas and guests or if you'd like to be a guest on the show