A. Wu1, K. Morris1, A. Hanna2, S. Liu2 1University Of California – San Diego, Electrical And Computer Engineering Department, Jacobs School Of Engineering, San Diego, CA, USA 2University Of California – San Diego, School Of Medicine, San Diego, CA, USA
Introduction: Surgeons often operate in poor ergonomic positions for prolonged periods. Extensive flexion of the neck can result in short-term discomfort and long-term neck injuries that impact surgeons’ quality of life and, potentially, surgical performances. Despite the known risks of poor ergonomics, there have been limited attempts to monitor surgeon ergonomics and provide meaningful real-time feedback. This study proposes and investigates the implementation of commercially available accelerometer- and gyroscope-enabled earphones with a self-developed mobile phone application to continuously capture surgeon neck posture during surgery and provide real-time corrective feedback.
Methods: Surgeon neck flexion is measured using earphone inertial sensors during a variety of procedures. The data is wirelessly transmitted via Bluetooth to a mobile phone. The self-developed application then collects and performs preliminary analysis to assess surgeons’ neck position. The application plots surgeons’ neck position throughout the surgery and offers a real-time audio alert to surgeons when a pre-specified amount of time has been spent in ergonomically risky positions. The audio feedback is intended to prompt a correction in posture when necessary. The application allows surgeons to input their preferred ergonomic positions to customize tracking and feedback. Continuous recording of neck position during surgeries enables detailed post-surgery analysis of posture.
Results: As shown in figure 1, the system successfully recorded neck forward flexion and lateral flexion, displayed flexion data to surgeons, and further distinguished surgeon time spent in “good”, “okay”, and “bad” posture considering ergonomic risk described in the literature. The application also provided alerts to surgeons during operations to correct surgeon postures. The forward and lateral neck flexion can be analyzed to assess surgeons’ posture at any given time. 27 surgeries, 11 surgeons, and more than 20 hours of surgeon data has been captured and analyzed.
Conclusion: This study demonstrated the feasibility of implementing earphones with an application to monitor and assess surgeon ergonomics. The system effectively prompted posture corrections during operations, potentially reducing injuries in surgeons caused by prolonged improper posture. Future research will focus on refining the system’s accuracy, evaluating its long-term impact on surgeons’ health, and applying this technology to medical staff of different disciplines. More data and analyses will be presented at the conference along with additional implemented features for improving surgeon ergonomics.