Ergonomics for Pathologists in the Digital Age: What Can We Learn from Radiologists?

Though ergonomics is a well-established discipline in occupational and preventive medicine, there is a lack of awareness of basic principles and application in enterprise imaging. This is especially true for imaging centric medical specialties, namely pathology and radiology. In the digital age, like radiologists, pathologists are experiencing increasingly complex viewing workstations; many with increasingly common repetitive stress injury (RSI) compounded by lack of institutional oversight. The presenters are a practicing radiologist and a pathologist from a leading academic medical center who will discuss the best practice examples and lessons learned from literature review, resources gathering, and a wellness initiative to shed light on the timely topic of ergonomics for pathologists in the digital age. As part of our medical center's wellness program and quality improvement, we identified a need to increase ergonomics awareness in radiology, specifically viewing state, starting with a three-minute instructional video and short description centered around three basic ergonomic principles. Content is organized by the 'three points of contact' well known in the imaging informatics community as follows: - Where the eyes meet the monitor(s) - Where the hands/fingers meet input devices (keyboard, mouse(s)) - Where the feet meet the floor (when standing) or body meets the chair (when sitting) The video is an informal discussion with a radiologist asking questions about another radiologist's workstation that includes an advanced standing/sitting workstation desk, four monitors, a dictation microphone stand for hands free dictation, two gaming mouses and keyboard. A short description based on the three points outlined above is included with a short quiz on the topics covered in the video. The video was made available on an internal shared drive (OneDrive by Microsoft) and announced at a faculty meeting as optional viewing and optional participation in the quiz (initially optional to assess interest). Our efforts resulted in wellness funding allowing for a Certified Professional Ergonomist (CPE) to perform ergonomic evaluations during several site visits with a resultant presentation that was shocking for most attendees. For example, many with RSI suddenly realized why they seemed to be 'falling apart' from work and not tennis, golf, or other activities. This approach could be adopted by pathologists to assess the current state of ergonomic awareness and identify areas for improvement in their working environment, particularly within the context of a new digital sign-out workflow. By studying best practices and literature, and securing institutional support and funding, we can address ergonomic concerns in pathology in digital age. Doctor, heal thyself! Then the patients will benefit from our wellbeing!

Learning Objectives

1. Recite the three points of contact at the pathologist’s workstation. 
2. Explore ways to garner institutional support and funding to mitigate RSI.           
3. Share resources and literatures on ergonomics in digital age.