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
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.
Ergonomics is foundational to ensuring an inclusive workplace that can accommodate diverse users equitably, even as the demographics of our endoscopists changes. To ensure a safe work environment, we need to apply the principles of human factors and user centered design to endoscopy, by designing tools and tasks within user capacity while understanding limitations. And in GI, it is important to recognize that the users are changing: 51% of active GIs are >55yo, and there are an increasing number of women in GI.
Dr. Amandeep Shergill, M.D., M.S.
Amandeep Shergill, M.D., M.S., FACG, FASGE, and AGAF is a
Gastroenterologist and Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and serves as the Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology for the San Francisco VA Health Care System. Dr. Shergill obtained her formal training in clinical research with a focus on ergonomics at UC Berkeley, earning a M.S. in Environmental Health Science. Her research centers on endoscopic ergonomics and injury prevention, and her work, in collaboration with Dr. Carisa Harris-Adamson, has helped to establish the field of GI endoscopy ergonomics. Dr. Shergill is dedicated to translating ergonomic principles for practicing gastroenterologists, educating and empowering clinicians, and advocating for user-centered tools and workplace designs.
Dr. Carisa Harris-Adamson, PhD, CPE
Carisa Harris-Adamson, PhD, CPE is a Professor in the Department of
Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. She serves as the Director and Principal Investigator of the UCSF/UCB Ergonomics Research & Graduate Training Program and the Director of the Northern California Center for Occupational & Environmental Health. Dr. Harris has dedicated her career to advancing ergonomics research and practice, playing a critical role in rigorously establishing and advancing the literature on endoscopy ergonomics. Dr. Harris and her team conduct research across various domains, aiming to understand and prevent work-related injuries while improving human performance, productivity, and health. Her epidemiological studies address healthy worker survivor bias when examining physical, personal, and psychosocial work factors associated with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and related work disabilities. Additionally, her team is developing wearable devices for exposure assessment, supporting both primary and secondary injury prevention efforts, and conducts intervention studies on high-risk occupational tasks. The lab’s research spans industries including construction, healthcare, technology, hospitality, and manufacturing.