The main goal of this pilot study was to create, implement and evaluate a strategy for introducing exoskeletons in the operating room (OR) at a quaternary care academic hospital. The strategy consisted of operating-room-specific considerations, introducing exoskeletons to surgeons, and a post-surgery survey. Three male attending vascular surgeons participated in eleven data collections to date. Low interference with surgeon’s ability to perform surgery was found for all surgical procedures, except for two open abdominal aortic procedures. The surgeons reported little to no limit on range of motion, except for one open abdominal aortic procedure. Lower than expected perceived improvement of ability to perform surgery and increase of physical comfort was self-reported. The responses indicate that the surgeons are willing to keep trying an exoskeleton intervention. In conclusion, a feasible process was created to introduce passive exoskeleton as an ergonomic intervention to vascular surgeons in their ORs.
The purpose of this research is to redesign the graphical user interface of the Coca Cola Freestyle machine to improve its usability for individuals with visual impairments. The proposed design included a feature to increase text and button size. Also, the drink selection process was reordered. In this study, the original display and the redesign were implemented on a touchscreen laptop to emulate the actual process. Ten subjects with normal and impaired vision were recruited respectively and were randomly assigned to complete a drink selection task in using either the “Original” GUI or a “Redesign” created by the authors (n=5).User feedback was collected and analyzed. The drink dispensing task completion time was recorded and analyzed using two-way ANOVA and Tukey pairwise comparison. It was concluded that the original design was easier to navigate in terms of icon position, but the redesign was preferred because of its flexibility to change the text size.
Background This study compared the ergonomics of surgeons during deep inferior epigastric perforator (DIEP) flap surgery using either baseline equipment (loupes, headlights, and an operating microscope) or an exoscope. Plastic surgeons may be at high risk of musculoskeletal problems. Recent studies indicate that adopting an exoscope may significantly improve surgeon postures and ergonomics.
Methods Postural exposures, using inertial measurement units at the neck, torso, and shoulders, were calculated in addition to the surgeons' subjective physical and cognitive workload. An ergonomic risk score on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 4 (highest) was calculated for each of the postures observed. Data from 23 bilateral DIEP flap surgeries (10 baseline and 13 exoscope) were collected.
Results The neck and torso risk scores decreased significantly during abdominal flap harvest and chest dissection, while right shoulder risk scores increased during the abdominal flap harvest for exoscope DIEP flap procedures compared with. Exoscope anastomoses demonstrated higher neck, right shoulder, and left shoulder risk scores. The results from the survey for the “surgeon at abdomen” showed that the usage of exoscopes was associated with decreased performance and increased mental demand, temporal demand, and effort. However, the results from the “surgeon at chest” showed that the usage of exoscopes was associated with lower physical demand and fatigue, potentially due to differences in surgeon preference.
Conclusion Our study revealed some objective evidence for the ergonomic benefits of exoscope; however, this is dependent on the tasks the surgeon is performing. Additionally, personal preferences may be an important factor to be considered in the ergonomic evaluation of the exoscope.
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