The ‘dangers’ of Repetitive Stress Injury are real and it is of little amazement to me that modern day radiologists are facing this problem as well – because they are now spend long hours in front of a computers.
Now ergonomics (the application of scientific information concerning humans to the design of objects, systems and environment for human use) is not a new concept, so why is it that millions of IT professionals, clerical staffs, students and now – modern day radiologists are still being subjected to pain and inconveniences cause by poor human factors engineering?
I feel its due to ‘poorly’ designed furniture (are your tables adjustable by height?) and lack of awareness. In my previous life as a PACS Administrator, I’ve been ’summon and yelled at’ by radiologists and clinicians about the poor design of their furniture / chairs (and even the fact that there were fingerprints on the monitors, I wonder who left those there….. ) Much as I wished that my PACS budget includes money to replace the entire hospital’s furnitures (and employ a cleaner to wipe their non-touch screen monitors), the sad fact is renovations and fittings don’t exactly fall under the ‘juridistion’ of the ‘almighty’ PACS administrator
Problems cause by ergonomics issues tend to cause a ’snowball effects’ on PACS adoption, people usually associate it with it as a PACS problem (well it was’t an issue before they had PACS right?)
Maybe ergonomics should be included in the CBOK (core body of knowledge) in PACS Administrators Certifications eh?
PACS users complain of Repetitive Stress Symptoms
Posted by Adam Chee on January 3, 2008
The ‘dangers’ of Repetitive Stress Injury are real and it is of little amazement to me that modern day radiologists are facing this problem as well – because they are now spend long hours in front of a computers.
Now ergonomics (the application of scientific information concerning humans to the design of objects, systems and environment for human use) is not a new concept, so why is it that millions of IT professionals, clerical staffs, students and now – modern day radiologists are still being subjected to pain and inconveniences cause by poor human factors engineering?
I feel its due to ‘poorly’ designed furniture (are your tables adjustable by height?) and lack of awareness. In my previous life as a PACS Administrator, I’ve been ’summon and yelled at’ by radiologists and clinicians about the poor design of their furniture / chairs (and even the fact that there were fingerprints on the monitors, I wonder who left those there…..
) Much as I wished that my PACS budget includes money to replace the entire hospital’s furnitures (and employ a cleaner to wipe their non-touch screen monitors), the sad fact is renovations and fittings don’t exactly fall under the ‘juridistion’ of the ‘almighty’ PACS administrator 
Problems cause by ergonomics issues tend to cause a ’snowball effects’ on PACS adoption, people usually associate it with it as a PACS problem (well it was’t an issue before they had PACS right?)
Maybe ergonomics should be included in the CBOK (core body of knowledge) in PACS Administrators Certifications eh?
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