Center for Ergonomic Endoscopy

Center for Ergonomic Endoscopy

Mission

The Center for Ergonomic Endoscopy is dedicated to understanding the mechanisms of endoscopy-related injuries and designing and evaluating equipment, tools, and work practices that reduce injury risk while optimizing endoscopist performance.

The Center for Ergonomic Endoscopy is committed to: 

  • understanding the mechanisms of endoscopy related injuries by applying the latest risk assessment technologies
  • educating endoscopy teams on basic ergonomic principles and helping them understand the most effective and actionable mitigation measures to apply to their unit
  • advocating for user centered design and safer tools and work environments for the entire endoscopy team

Background

Work shouldn’t hurt. However, the majority of endoscopists have experienced pain related to the performance of endoscopy because of sub optimally designed tools and workstations. Ergonomics is the scientific study of people at work and the goal is to prevent work related musculoskeletal disorders caused by high-risk exposures.

Performing endoscopy can require high forces and sustained loads to interact with our endoscope, and age and sex and are the most important predictors of strength. Females at their strongest (in their 20s-30s) are equally as strong as males between 70 - 80 years. And getting older isn’t for the weak! As we age, strength declines by 30-40% over our lifespan. Given the looming shortage of gastroenterologists, it is imperative that we understand ergonomic principles and apply it to endoscopy to optimize the performance of endoscopic procedures while keeping endoscopists safe.