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.

When we think about surgical ergonomics, we often focus on posture, equipment, and operating room setup. But what if one of the biggest contributors to fatigue, performance, and musculoskeletal strain is something we rarely consider—the visual environment?

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Hillevi Hemphälä Assistant Professor at Lund University and one of the world's leading experts in visual ergonomics. Drawing on her unique background as both an optometrist and lighting designer, she explains how lighting influences not only what we see, but how we perform, feel, and function in the operating room.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Dr. Hemphälä's journey from optometrist to visual ergonomics researcher led her to uncover the important relationship between lighting, performance, and musculoskeletal health.
• Why poor operating room lighting affects more than visual comfort—and how glare and excessive brightness may contribute to fatigue, workflow challenges, and patient safety.
• The fascinating research demonstrating that eye strain is associated with increased neck and shoulder muscle activity, providing another pathway by which poor visual environments may contribute to work-related musculoskeletal disorders.
• Why "more light" isn't always better, including the surprising finding that healthcare workers may require up to two minutes to fully recover visual performance after exposure to excessively bright surgical lighting.
• Practical recommendations for improving lighting in both open and minimally invasive operating rooms, including strategies that healthcare organizations can implement to create safer and more ergonomic work environments.
• Simple techniques you can use to identify glare and problematic LED flicker in your own office or workspace, and what to do about it.

Articles referenced:

Visual Ergonomics in Open surgery: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1477153520903355

VERAM https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-74605-6_92

Follow Surgical Ergonomics on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube 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 podcast

If you found this episode valuable, please share it with a colleague or your perioperative team to help bring greater awareness to the role of ergonomics in career longevity. If you're enjoying the podcast, I'd be grateful if you left a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your reviews help others discover the show and support our mission of improving the health and longevity of surgeons and proceduralists worldwide.

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. Deborah Kacmarynski, is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at the University of Iowa, working at Stead Family Children’s Hospital as a pediatric otolaryngologist and a cleft and craniofacial surgeon with co-directorship for the cleft and craniofacial team. Her research focuses on biomedical collaborations with oral cleft and craniofacial surgical problems including craniofacial airway, tissue engineering solution development, outcomes research and patient-centered outcomes research collaboratives. Prior to medicine, she worked as a biomedical engineer in process and product development at 3M Company which continues to influence her approach to improving patient care, surgeries and processes.

In this episode, Dr. Kacmarynski:

- Shares her journey from being an engineer at 3M to becoming a pediatric otolaryngologist

- Describes how her interest in surgical ergonomics evolved very early in training and practice due to a combination of her attention to safety as an engineer, underlying conditions and her desire to preserve her function through the rigors of surgical training

- Shares how she ensures that her trainees understand the importance of basic interventions such as attention to changing posture, taking breaks and stretches inside and outside the OR

- Provides her routine for good ergonomics - setting cases up differently, adopting deflection loupes, physical therapy exercises, massage therapy etc.

- Shares how learners and surgical leaders can take the lead on driving increased attention to physical being and ergonomics in procedural workspaces

Follow Surgical Ergonomics on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube 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 podcast

If you found this episode valuable, please share it with a colleague or your perioperative team to help bring greater awareness to the role of ergonomics in career longevity. If you're enjoying the podcast, I'd be grateful if you left a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your reviews help others discover the show and support our mission of improving the health and longevity of surgeons and proceduralists worldwide.

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.

Follow Surgical Ergonomics on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube 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 podcast

If you found this episode valuable, please share it with a colleague or your perioperative team to help bring greater awareness to the role of ergonomics in career longevity. If you're enjoying the podcast, I'd be grateful if you left a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your reviews help others discover the show and support our mission of improving the health and longevity of surgeons and proceduralists worldwide.