Research Review: Is physical capacity associated with the occurrence of musculoskeletal symptoms among office workers?

Injury occurs when the demands of a job exceed the capacity of a worker. Primarily, the capacity of a worker is focused on the physical strength that they possess – how much muscle force can be generated by the muscles of the lower back, shoulder, etc. However, other factors inherent to the job can also reduce the worker’s physical capacity – including the mental capacity of the worker. In assessing the ergonomics of a workplace, both the mental, and the physical demands must be assessed to determine the true risk of injury that a job inherently has.

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July 8, 2019 Ergonomics, Research Comments Off on Research Review: Is physical capacity associated with the occurrence of musculoskeletal symptoms among office workers?

The DOL Strength Levels – does oversimplifying job demands increase exposure to injury risk?

Written by: Mike Sonne, PhD, CCPE

Summary: The DOL strength levels classify jobs into 5 separate categories defined by force/weight, and frequency of exertion. The classification system leads to a broad oversimplification of the demands of work, which in the worst case can lead to over and under estimates of physical demands of over 500%. A much more granular system is needed to better understand the different physical demands of work, and how that  can be used in return to work, and injury prevention.

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June 3, 2019 Ergonomics, Research Comments Off on The DOL Strength Levels – does oversimplifying job demands increase exposure to injury risk?

Video Kinematics Produces Physical Job Demand Descriptions on Steroids

March 26, 2019 BY AMAXX / Michael B. Stack

How familiar are you with the physical demands of every job in your company? That may sound like a loaded question, but the more understanding you have of each job, the better you’ll be at preventing injuries, reducing workers’ compensation costs and improving your bottom line.

However, many companies face the challenge of lack of time or resources to do a thorough and complete job of developing a physical demands database. The development of technology and artificial intelligence now makes this easy.

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March 26, 2019 Medical and Claims Management, Research Comments Off on Video Kinematics Produces Physical Job Demand Descriptions on Steroids

Unlocking the potential of your Physical Demands Descriptions

Welcome to MyAbilities! My name is Mike Sonne, and I am the Vice President of Innovations and Research. I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of MyAbilities, and develop new, well-researched ergonomics tools, that will make workers lives better.

I have worked in ergonomics for the past 10 years, where I completed doctoral research on automotive manufacturing ergonomics, and a masters thesis on developing developed the Rapid Office Strain Assessment. After nearly 2 years of engineering, the MyAbilities team is excited to be bringing you our platform’s first offering – the digital job profiling and physical demands analysis tool. Every ergonomist probably started their career conducting physical demands analyses – the process of meticulously detailing every demand of a job. With a good PDA database, your company builds up a cook book of the physical requirements needed to perform the individual recipes of jobs in your organization.

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April 19, 2018 Ergonomics, Medical and Claims Management, Research Comments Off on Unlocking the potential of your Physical Demands Descriptions
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