Surgical Ergonomics

Geeta Lal MD
  • 5.0 (15)
  • MEDICINE
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

This podcast will discuss everything relating to surgical and procedural  ergonomics i.e. the people, ideas and technology that will help enhance your physical wellness and career longevity. 

  1. Surgeons as elite athletes with musician and exercise physiologist Mr. Gil Spitz

    FEB 23

    Surgeons as elite athletes with musician and exercise physiologist Mr. Gil Spitz

    This episode of the podcast is sponsored by PearsonRavitz Insurance. You can learn about them and schedule a consultation on my website at: https://pearsonravitz.com/surgicalergonomics/ Disclosure:  PearsonRavitz is a paid sponsor and the affiliate link above supports the podcast at no cost to you.  Episode details: Mr. Gil Spitz was originally a classical musician and shifted his focus to ergonomics and preventative exercise to help musicians with repetitive motion injuries. He furthered his expertise with an MS in Exercise Physiology, researching optimized training for first responders.  In 2019, he joined the Medical ICU team at Baylor/St. Luke's Medical Center, developing and enacting exercise plans for medically compromised patients. Since 2021, he has been with the Liver Transplant Program, implementing a hospital-wide method for assessing transplant patients' physical suitability, providing post-transplant follow-up, and developing a virtual pre-habilitation program to improve outcomes. During this time he has also worked with the surgical staff helping them prevent musculoskeletal and repetitive motion injuries. Gil has worked with providers both on a 1-on-1 basis, addressing specific needs and issues, as well as presenting the topic of OR ergonomics, inter- & intra-op preventative exercises to incoming resident cohorts during an annual bootcamp at Baylor College of Medicine.  In this episode Mr. Spitz: - Describes his journey from being a musician playing classical guitar to then building a career as an exercise physiologist - Explains why he likens surgeons to elite athletes, except that little attention is paid to surgeons' recovery period - Emphasizes that surgeons need to pay attention to their sleep hygiene, address inflammation, evaluation by a functional movement specialist (or a PT/OT) to assess muscle imbalances and passive to active stretching - Advises surgeons to prioritize their physical health and protect their investment (time, money and effort spent on training and working on their craft) - Discusses the differences between male and female athletes with respect to strength, mobility and prolonged static tasks and how athlete training programs are actually designed around their menstrual cycles - Shares emerging research in the area of exercise physiology with respect to exercising with blood flow restriction - Emphasizes certain types of maneuvres that pregnant surgeons need to focus on (chin tucks, scapular retraction etc. ) to maintain a more balanced posture -  Follow us on LinkedIn, X, Instagram and Facebook and 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 show

    43 min
  2. Why loupes are hurting your neck and what to do about it with pediatric ophthalmologist Dr. Donny Suh

    FEB 10

    Why loupes are hurting your neck and what to do about it with pediatric ophthalmologist Dr. Donny Suh

    This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Q-optics. You can learn about them, the special rates they are offering for podcast listerners and schedule a demo via : https://q-optics.com/pages/surgicalergonomics-drlal Disclosure:  Q-optics is a paid sponsor and the affiliate link above supports the podcast at no cost to you. It also provides you with a discount and a giveaway to listeners of the podcast, so we hope that it is a win-win! Dr. Donny W. Suh  a Professor and Chief of Pediatric Ophthalmology and the Eye Mobile Program at the University of California, Irvine. He works at UCI Gavin Herbert Eye Institute and the Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC).  He also volunteers with ORBIS Global Health Programs, providing medical care and training ophthalmologists in underserved regions across South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. In addition, he is the Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Ophthalmology Section Membership Committee , an inductee of the American Ophthalmological Society and was awarded “Inventor of the Year” in 2019 by the University of Nebraska Medical Center. In this episode Dr. Suh:  - Shares that he became interested in ergonomics about 10-15 years into his practice because he started to have MSK symptoms and noticed many colleagyes with the same due to awkward posture while operating - Explains that loupes are essentially telescopes and that there are 2 main types, Galilean and Keplerian. The former have a convex and concave lens and the latter contain 2 or more convex lenses. Keplerian loupes are able to provide higher magnifications but are heavy due to the higher number of lenses. - Elaborates on why the use of loupes is an independent risk factor for the development of work-related MSK symptoms among surgeons and dentists. - Clarifies that here has't been a lot of change in loupe design until very recently, with the major change being prism deflection. Other changes include lighter titanium frames, plastic lenses and strap design. - Discusses the difference between Galilean and Prismatic loupes. The former are limited by the extent of how deep a declination angle one can achieve. Deflection loupes are technically a subtype of Prismatic loupes but for all practical purposes, they can be considered similar. - Explains why Prismatic/Deflection loupes need customization (to our face and working distance) or the image will be blurred. Therefore, it is important to simulate your surgical experience when getting fitted for them. - Advises individuals that there are some challenges associated with using Prismatic/ Deflection loupes, such as image displacement and image distortion, and it is important to give time to get used to working with them You can learn about ergonomic loupes straps developed by Dr. Suh here: https://suhhermsen.com/ergonmic-loupe-strap You can reach Dr. Suh on Linked In and Instagram  Follow us on LinkedIn, X, Instagram and Facebook and 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 show

    48 min
  3. Building A Smarter Surgical Step with Pediatric Neurosurgeon Dr. Jennifer Quon

    JAN 26

    Building A Smarter Surgical Step with Pediatric Neurosurgeon Dr. Jennifer Quon

    Episode details: Dr. Jennifer Quon is a pediatric neurosurgeon at the Hospital for Sick Children and an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. She is also the Co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Smartstep Surgical LLC. Dr. Quon completed medical school at Yale School of Medicine and neurosurgical training at Stanford Hospital. She did her pediatric neurosurgery fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children prior to starting as faculty. Dr. Quon has broad clinical interests in pediatric neurosurgery, with expertise in skull base brain tumors, vascular disorders and fetal surgery. Her research program focuses machine learning applications in pediatric neurosurgery and neuroimaging, and surgical innovation.  In this episode Dr. Quon: - Shares the challenges she faced using standing stools/steps in the operating room which in turn, inspired her ergonomics and innovation journey - Discusses how she started her innovation journey by thinking about what features she would want an ideal step stool to have - Explains that Surgistep is a motorized surgical stool/step which can adjust height in 1mm increments using a scissor-lift mechanism and allows surgeons the ability to make adjustments without asking other team members to stack steps  https://www.smartstepsurgical.com/collections/surgistep - Elaborates on the various steps during her innovation journey i.e. background research, finding a partner familiar with devices, meeting with engineers, raising funding, getting additional partners, making a prototype and learning legal and regulatory requirements - Shares some of the frustrations during her innovator journey including the timelines being longer than anticipated and getting conflicting feedback to make engineering modifications - Describes the basics of getting funding for aspiring surgeon-innovators - Highlights that she is working on other safety products for the OR You can reach Dr. Quon directly via email: jennifer.quon@sickkids.ca  Smart Step Surgical LLC is offering a 20% discount for listeners of the podcast which you can access here: https://www.smartstepsurgical.com/blogs/news/surgical-ergonomic-podcast-promotional-discount -  Follow us on LinkedIn, X, Instagram and Facebook and 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 show

    34 min
  4. Introduction to Cognitive Ergonomics and the OR Black Box with Dr. Patricia Trbovich

    JAN 12

    Introduction to Cognitive Ergonomics and the OR Black Box with Dr. Patricia Trbovich

    This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Q-optics. You can learn about them, the special rates they are offering for podcast listerners and schedule a demo via : https://q-optics.com/pages/surgicalergonomics-drlal Disclosure:  Q-optics is a paid sponsor and the affiliate link above supports the podcast at no cost to you. It also provides you with a discount and a giveaway to listeners of the podcast, so we hope that it is a win-win! Episode details: Dr. Patricia Trbovich is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation and cross appointed at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto. She holds the Badeau Family Research Chair in Patient Safety and Quality Improvement at North York General Hospital. She is the Research and Scholarship lead, Centre for Quality Improvement & Patient Safety (C-QuIPS).  Patricia leads HumanEra, a team dedicated to enhancing healthcare safety and performance through human factors research. With over 15 years of experience, she's implemented health technologies and trained professionals worldwide. Now, she’s focused on advancing surgical safety through innovative tools such as the OR Black Box to identify safety threats to provider and patient safety, apply human factors principles to operationalize resilience, and prototype and test human factors informed interventions.   In this episode Dr. Trbovich: - Shares her training background and how she arrived at her current role - Defines cognitive ergonomics as a branch of Human Factors that focuses on how we design systems to support the way people think, the way they make decisions and how they manage information, especially under pressure - Describes the consequences of not paying attention to workers' cognitive ergonomics in the OR, such as, creating conditions where they are overloaded and forced into task-switching (often mistaken for multi-tasking) which then increases the risk of errors - Discusses her work where her team have identified the most interrupted time for anesthesiologists (i.e. emergence) and nurses (i.e. closing counts) - Elaborates on the OR black box and other tools (surveys such as the NASA-Task Load Index, observations, objective measures of physiologic responses and behavior markers) that are used to study interruptions and understand work as it is done, and not as it is imagined - Shares Black box data is useful to look at not only safety threats but also resilience supports and psychological safety..... - Discusses strategies for preserving cognitive bandwidth of various team members in the OR e.g. calling out increasing cognitive load prior to it reaching a critical point, using checklists and other visual indicators and looking at how often staff are task-switching  You can learn more about the work references in this episode in these articles: 1) https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/15/10/e104713.long 2)https://journals.lww.com/annalsofsurgery/fulltext/2024/07000/using_the_operating_room_black_box_to_assess.13.aspx You can reach Dr. Trbovich on Linked In Follow us on LinkedIn, X, Instagram and Facebook and 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 show

    41 min
  5. Designing your practice to optimize physical wellbeing with Oral Maxillofacial Surgeon Dr. Erin Sheffield

    12/30/2025

    Designing your practice to optimize physical wellbeing with Oral Maxillofacial Surgeon Dr. Erin Sheffield

    This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Q-optics. You can learn about them, the special rates they are offering for podcast listerners and schedule a demo via : https://q-optics.com/pages/surgicalergonomics-drlal Disclosure:  Q-optics is a paid sponsor and the affiliate link above supports the podcast at no cost to you. It also provides you with a discount and a giveaway to listeners of the podcast, so we hope that it is a win-win! Episode details: Dr. Erin Sheffield is a board certified oral maxillofacial surgeon, speaker, educator, and advocate. Her passion is reshaping the culture of surgery by amplifying the voices of women and redefining what it means to thrive in this high demand profession. She is the founder of The Doctor Is ALL In (formerly known as Elevate Summit), a wellness and leadership retreat for women in Oral Maxillofacial Surgery, and co-host of The Resting Stitch Face Podcast, where she leads unfiltered conversations about the realities of life as a woman in surgery. As a content creator, she is known for her openness and authenticity, inspiring the next generation of doctors and empowering patients to make more informed and empowered healthcare choices. She practices at Quincy Medical Group, a large multispecialty physicians group in Illinois. She previously served as assistant professor at the Univeristy of Iowa and currently serves on institutional committees for antiobiotic stewardship and ambulatory surgery.  In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Sheffield - Shares how although dentistry training does a better job than surgical training reminding trainees about optimal postures during procedures, dentists have high rates of MSK injury - Outlines how she tries to incorporate ergonomic best practices in her own practice and while training dental staff. These include adjusting the height of the chair, sitting during certain procedures, stretching in between cases to name a few - Describes other strategies that she has adopted over the years, including investing in good overhead lights to avoid using headlights, only using loupes when absolutely needed and adjusting workflow to offload physical strain - Expresses how working with a physical therapist was really helpful for overall physical health even though she initially sought them out for pelvic issues post-partum - Discusses how smaller handed dentists (more likely to be women) often have issues handling dental instruments e.g. syringes used to inject local anesthetics You can reach Dr. Sheffield on: LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-sheffield-dds-9ab281339/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drerinsheffield/ Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRestingStitchFacePodcast Website: https://www.doctorisallin.com/ Follow us on LinkedIn, X, Instagram and Facebook and 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 show

    44 min
  6. Thinking outside the box and operating smarter with Dr. Philip Haigh

    12/15/2025

    Thinking outside the box and operating smarter with Dr. Philip Haigh

    This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Q-optics. You can learn about them, the special rates they are offering for podcast listerners and schedule a demo via : https://q-optics.com/pages/surgicalergonomics-drlal Disclosure:  Q-optics is a paid sponsor and the affiliate link above supports the podcast at no cost to you. It also provides you with a discount and a giveaway to listeners of the podcast, so we hope that it is a win-win! Episode details: Dr. Philip Haigh is an endocrine and oncologic surgeon at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center (KP-LAMC), and a Clinical professor at the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J Tyson School of Medicine. He is a regional resource within the Southern California Permanente Medical Group for treating patients with complicated thyroid, parathyroid disease, and sarcoma. His research interests are  focused on population studies on primary hyperparathyroidism and thyroid disease, and more recently in surgical ergonomics, particularly MSK pain in surgeons. He was a founding member and the first treasurer, and is currently the president of the Society of Surgical Ergonomics. In this episode, Dr. Haigh: - Shares his story of experiencing work-related neck pain, which eventually led to his interest in the field of surgical ergonomics and his role as a founding member and inaugural treasurer of the Society of Surgical Ergonomics (SSE) - Discusses how he  was inspired to change his workflow around neck surgery by using the operating microscope for thyroid surgery (based on one paper that mentioned a potential ergonomic benefit) - Describes his reasons for continuing to use the operating microscope  for thyroid surgery i.e. superior lighting and magnification (obviating the the need for a headlight and loupes respectively). His experience with this technique and findings are summarized in this paper published in the American Journal of Surgery - Stresses the importance of microbreaks and stretches as interventions to improve surgical ergonomics and shares his experience implementing them at his institution - Emphasizes his experience on operating with another surgeon for long and complex cases to reduce both the physical and cognitive load and hence,  working "smarter" - Shares his vision for his role as the next President of the SSE You can reach Dr. Haigh on X and LinkedIn Follow us on LinkedIn, X, Instagram and Facebook and 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 show

    40 min
  7. Healing from MSK injury and Advocacy with Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgeon Dr. Kimberly Kho

    12/02/2025

    Healing from MSK injury and Advocacy with Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgeon Dr. Kimberly Kho

    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! Episode details: Dr. Kimberly Kho is currently a Professor, inaugural Chief of Advanced Gynecology and MIGS and Associate Chair of Faculty Development in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Women’s Health at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine.  Most recently, she was a Professor, the Associate Chief of Gynecology, and the Director of the Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery Fellowship Program at UT Southwestern Medical Center.   In addition to patient care, Dr. Kho has been a National Institutes of Health-supported clinical scholar with a focus on evaluating surgical techniques and technologies for the treatment of fibroids, adenomyosis and endometriosis, and more recently on surgical ergonomics. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for AAGL.  In this episode (recorded prior to her move) Dr. Kho: - Shares how she first became aware of body mechanics in her intern year while performing an elective C-section with her attending and how her MSK pain was exacerbated in fellowship  - Describes how she felt that she could not disclose or discuss her injuries as a new attending trying to establish a practice - Discusses why high-achieving surgeons and proceduralists experience shame, guilt and pressure to perform, thus not seeking help until their bodies force them  - Shares results of a recent study showing that 95.7% of gynecologic surgeons have pain during or after performing surgery. In addition, nearly 24% reported changing the surgical modality they offered patients based on their symptoms, and 62.5% were concerned about their ability to operate in the future - Emphasizes that although she still uses conventional laparoscopy, she has switched to doing more robot-assisted surgery for improved ergonomics - Expands on her ergonomics non-negotiables for the OR  -  Correct set-ups for both laparoscopic and robot-assisted surgery, anti-fatigue mats, proper footwear and intra-operative breaks and stretches - Encourages us all to work to improve OR culture for all personnel including nurses and scrub techs Dr. Kho can be reached on LinkedIn and Instagram Follow us on LinkedIn, X, Instagram and Facebook and 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 show

    55 min
  8. How underlying conditions can predispose to MSK injuries with endocrine surgeon Dr. Amanda Laird

    11/17/2025

    How underlying conditions can predispose to MSK injuries with endocrine surgeon Dr. Amanda Laird

    This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Q-optics. You can learn about them and schedule a demo via : https://q-optics.com/pages/surgicalergonomics-drlal Disclosure:  Q-optics is a paid sponsor and the affiliate link above supports the podcast at no cost to you. It also provides you with a discount and a giveaway to listeners of the podcast, so we hope that it is a win-win! Episode details: Dr. Amanda Laird is a fellowship-trained endocrine surgeon Dr. Laird is a fellowship trained endocrine surgeon and Chief of the Section of Endocrine Surgery at Rutgers Cancer Institute. She treats neuroendocrine and endocrine tumors of the thyroid, parathyroid glands, and adrenal glands, and has obtained a Designation of Focused Practice in Adult Complex Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgery from the American Board of Surgery.  Dr. Laird serves on several committees for both the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons and the Association of Academic Surgery. Her clinical research has yielded peer-reviewed publications, reviews, book chapters, and both national and international presentations.  In this episode, Dr. Laird: - Provides how the spectrum of MSK injuries varies, depending upon specialty and the types of cases one does - Discusses that endocrine surgeons have a high rate of MSK symptoms (90% in a survey study Am J Surg 2022 Jul;224(1 Pt B):315-318). - Shares that she has had multiple MSK injuries (some needing surgery) throughout her training and career, ultimately leading to a diagnosis of Ehlers-Danlos Type 3 - Reflects on how the expectations placed on providers and the culture of surgery makes it harder for individuals to seek help for their MSK symptoms - Described some of the lessons she has learned during her ergonomics journey, including how she has modified her endocrine practice to reduce the strain on her body (e.g. operating from the same side of the table as the pathology during thyroidectomy, taking breaks) You can reach Dr. Laird on LinkedIn here. Follow us on LinkedIn, X, Instagram and Facebook and 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 show

    42 min
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5
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About

This podcast will discuss everything relating to surgical and procedural  ergonomics i.e. the people, ideas and technology that will help enhance your physical wellness and career longevity. 

Information

  • Creator
    Geeta Lal MD
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    28
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Surgical Ergonomics
  • Show Website
    Surgical Ergonomics