Episode Details:

Many surgeons and proceduralists live with chronic neck, shoulder, jaw, or headache pain without realizing that the true source may lie elsewhere.

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Hannah Park, fellowship-trained headache neurologist and founder of Park Your Headache, to explore the fascinating world of myofascial pain. Hannah shares her deeply personal journey from aspiring concert pianist whose career was ended by repetitive strain injuries to becoming a physician dedicated to helping others with chronic pain.

Together, we discuss why so many healthcare professionals struggle to obtain an accurate diagnosis, why imaging is often normal despite severe symptoms, and how understanding trigger points, referred pain, and muscle compensation patterns can transform treatment.

Whether you're a surgeon, proceduralist or anyone living with persistent muscle pain, this conversation will help you better understand your body, and why effective treatment often requires looking beyond where it hurts.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why myofascial pain is frequently overlooked or misdiagnosed

• How repetitive strain and sustained postures create chronic muscle dysfunction

• Why trigger points can produce pain far away from their actual location

• The relationship between headaches, neck pain, jaw pain, and trapezius muscle dysfunction

• Why normal imaging doesn't rule out significant pain

• The importance of finding clinicians with specialized expertise in headache medicine and myofascial pain

• How injection therapies fit into a comprehensive treatment approach

• Why chronic pain develops over years—and why recovery also requires patience

• The surprising similarities between musicians, surgeons, and other high-performance professionals

Resources Learn more about Dr. Hannah Park:

Website: www.parkyourheadachenj.com 

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-l-park-m-d-b555b729b

Follow Surgical Ergonomics on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube 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 podcast

If you found this episode valuable, please share it with a colleague or your perioperative team to help bring greater awareness to the role of ergonomics in career longevity. If you're enjoying the podcast, I'd be grateful if you left a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your reviews help others discover the show and support our mission of improving the health and longevity of surgeons and proceduralists worldwide.

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:

What starts as "just another ache" can gradually become a career-ending injury. Whether you're early in training or decades into practice, this episode is a reminder that taking care of your body isn't a luxury—it's an investment in your career longevity. 

About Our Guest

Dr. Melanie Seybt is a board-certified Otolaryngologist with fellowship training in head and neck endocrine surgery.  She has been on faculty at the Medical College of Georgia as an Assistant professor where she also served as the co-director of the MCG Thyroid Center. She subsequently practiced as a high volume thyroid and parathyroid surgeon with Palmetto ENT and Allergy in South Carolina. After years in practice, repetitive work-related shoulder injuries ultimately forced her into early retirement from clinical work. She now advocates for greater awareness of surgical ergonomics, career longevity, and protecting surgeons from preventable musculoskeletal injuries. 

In this episode, you'll learn:

•  Why persistent shoulder pain should never be dismissed as "part of being a surgeon." 
•  How repetitive overhead work contributed to multiple rotator cuff tears and failed repairs. 
•  The hidden ergonomic challenges faced by many ENT and endocrine surgeons. 
•  Why women surgeons may face additional ergonomic risks related to stature, equipment design, and midlife hormonal changes. 
•  How small ergonomic changes, such as proper positioning and height adjustments, might reduce long-term injury risk. 
•  Why surgeons often delay seeking care, underestimate recovery time, and continue working despite significant injury. 
•  The emotional impact of losing a surgical identity and navigating medical retirement. 
•  What every surgeon should know about disability insurance, documentation, and protecting their future career.

Follow Surgical Ergonomics on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube 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 podcast

If you found this episode valuable, please share it with a colleague or your perioperative team to help bring greater awareness to the role of ergonomics in career longevity. If you're enjoying the podcast, I'd be grateful if you left a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your reviews help others discover the show and support our mission of improving the health and longevity of surgeons and proceduralists worldwide.

This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Sunoptic Surgical. You can learn about them and schedule a demo via   https://sunopticsurgical.com/surgicalergonomics/

Disclosure: 

Sunoptic Surgical is a paid sponsor and the affiliate link above supports the podcast at no cost to you. 

When we think about surgical ergonomics, we often focus on posture, equipment, and operating room setup. But what if one of the biggest contributors to fatigue, performance, and musculoskeletal strain is something we rarely consider—the visual environment?

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Hillevi Hemphälä Assistant Professor at Lund University and one of the world's leading experts in visual ergonomics. Drawing on her unique background as both an optometrist and lighting designer, she explains how lighting influences not only what we see, but how we perform, feel, and function in the operating room.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Dr. Hemphälä's journey from optometrist to visual ergonomics researcher led her to uncover the important relationship between lighting, performance, and musculoskeletal health.
• Why poor operating room lighting affects more than visual comfort—and how glare and excessive brightness may contribute to fatigue, workflow challenges, and patient safety.
• The fascinating research demonstrating that eye strain is associated with increased neck and shoulder muscle activity, providing another pathway by which poor visual environments may contribute to work-related musculoskeletal disorders.
• Why "more light" isn't always better, including the surprising finding that healthcare workers may require up to two minutes to fully recover visual performance after exposure to excessively bright surgical lighting.
• Practical recommendations for improving lighting in both open and minimally invasive operating rooms, including strategies that healthcare organizations can implement to create safer and more ergonomic work environments.
• Simple techniques you can use to identify glare and problematic LED flicker in your own office or workspace, and what to do about it.

Articles referenced:

Visual Ergonomics in Open surgery: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1477153520903355

VERAM https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-74605-6_92

Dr. Hemphala thanks the Bertil och Britt Svenssons Stiftelse för Belysningsteknik (Bertil and Britt Svensson’s Foundation for Illumination Technology) for financial support.

Follow Surgical Ergonomics on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube 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 podcast

If you found this episode valuable, please share it with a colleague or your perioperative team to help bring greater awareness to the role of ergonomics in career longevity. If you're enjoying the podcast, I'd be grateful if you left a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your reviews help others discover the show and support our mission of improving the health and longevity of surgeons and proceduralists worldwide.

This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Sunoptic Surgical. You can learn about them and schedule a demo via   https://sunopticsurgical.com/surgicalergonomics/

Disclosure: 

Sunoptic Surgical is a paid sponsor and the affiliate link above supports the podcast at no cost to you. 

Dr. Deborah Kacmarynski, is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at the University of Iowa, working at Stead Family Children’s Hospital as a pediatric otolaryngologist and a cleft and craniofacial surgeon with co-directorship for the cleft and craniofacial team.   Her research focuses on biomedical collaborations with oral cleft and craniofacial surgical problems including craniofacial airway, tissue engineering solution development, outcomes research and patient-centered outcomes research collaboratives.  Prior to medicine, she worked as a biomedical engineer in process and product development at 3M Company which continues to influence her  approach to improving patient care, surgeries and processes.

In this episode, Dr. Kacmarynski:

- Shares her journey from being an engineer at 3M to becoming a pediatric otolaryngologist

- Describes how her interest in surgical ergonomics evolved very early in training and practice due to a combination of her attention to safety as an engineer,  underlying conditions and her desire to preserve her function through the rigors of surgical training

- Shares how she ensures that her trainees understand the importance of basic interventions such as attention to changing posture, taking breaks and stretches inside and outside the OR

- Provides her routine for good ergonomics - setting cases up differently, adopting deflection loupes, physical therapy exercises, massage therapy etc.

- Shares how learners and surgical leaders can take the lead on driving increased attention to physical being and ergonomics in procedural workspaces

Follow Surgical Ergonomics on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube 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 podcast

If you found this episode valuable, please share it with a colleague or your perioperative team to help bring greater awareness to the role of ergonomics in career longevity. If you're enjoying the podcast, I'd be grateful if you left a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your reviews help others discover the show and support our mission of improving the health and longevity of surgeons and proceduralists worldwide.

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!

Dr. David Berger is  a physician executive and former hospital CEO turned digital health advisor — helping early-stage startups and healthcare investors navigate the complexity of building and scaling in the healthcare system. With 30+ years of leadership experience in care delivery, he now works with founders and VCs to bring clinically sound, operationally feasible innovation to market.  

In this episode Dr. Berger:

- Shares details about his career pivots, including his journey dealing with work-related MSK issues 

- Describes how he navigated coming back to work after the multiple surgeries he needed, including altering his practice from full-scale surgical oncology to do mainly shorter cases due to ongoing symptoms

- Discusses how hospital leaders (including Chairs of Surgery) can and should track lost days of work from MSK injury and support initiatives aimed at improving ergonomics in procedural specialties.

- Shares why and how surgical societies, including the American College of Surgeons  and the ACGME can take steps to highlight the issue of the high rates of MSK injuries among surgeons

You can reach Dr. Berger via his Linked in profile here.

Follow Surgical Ergonomics on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube 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 podcast

If you found this episode valuable, please share it with a colleague or your perioperative team to help bring greater awareness to the role of ergonomics in career longevity. If you're enjoying the podcast, I'd be grateful if you left a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your reviews help others discover the show and support our mission of improving the health and longevity of surgeons and proceduralists worldwide.

This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Sunoptic Surgical. You can learn about them and schedule a demo via   https://sunopticsurgical.com/surgicalergonomics/

Disclosure: 

Sunoptic Surgical is a paid sponsor and the affiliate link above supports the podcast at no cost to you. 

 Dr. Sara White is a veterinarian and has worked in mixed animal, small animal, shelter medicine and High-Quality, High-Volume Spay Neuter (HQHVSN) practices. Since 2006, Sara has operated Spay ASAP Inc, a nonprofit MASH-style mobile spay/neuter clinic. While working in spay-neuter, Sara developed an interest in ergonomics, health, wellbeing, and injury in veterinarians and staff, and  completed a Masters of Science in Health Ergonomics from University of Derby in the UK. She has been named Veterinarian of the Year by the Association of Shelter Veterinarians, coauthored the Association of Shelter Veterinarians Spay Neuter Guidelines and is the editor of the textbook High-Quality, High-Volume Spay and Neuter and Other Shelter Surgeries 

In this episode, Dr. White:

- Shares her journey into working in a high-volume spay/neuter practice and how that sparked her interest in ergonomics

-Describes the high rate of work-related MSK injuries among veterinarians and especially those in high volume spay-neuter practices. The period prevalence of MSD was 99.1%, with 76.7% experiencing hand or wrist pain and 98.2% experiencing body pain. Further details can be found here: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/3/1/85

- Emphasizes that increasing career length, increasing weekly hours in surgery and decreasing job satisfaction were the work-related factors with the greatest relative risk of hand pain severity and total pain. Interestingly, gender differences were not as prominent in her study, possibly because of the lack of instrument and hand size mismatch in the veterinary population

- Shares that there wasn't any formal ergonomics training when she trained in veterinary medicine, however, there is now some incorporation of ergonomics teaching in programs and textbooks

- Describes her journey into coaching veterinarians about ergonomics

You can reach Dr. White via her website ergovet.com or via LinkedIn

Follow Surgical Ergonomics on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube 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 podcast

If you found this episode valuable, please share it with a colleague or your perioperative team to help bring greater awareness to the role of ergonomics in career longevity. If you're enjoying the podcast, I'd be grateful if you left a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your reviews help others discover the show and support our mission of improving the health and longevity of surgeons and proceduralists worldwide.

Dr. Christopher Perkes is an Anesthesiologist at Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. His non-clinical pursuits have included serving as an Anesthesia Medical Director (Quinte Health), Premesis Inspection Committee member for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, and delivering a Canadian Anesthesiology Society presentation on Ergonomics for the Anesthesiologist. His interest in ergonomics began in 2018 when he suffered a back injury that threatened his career. 

In this episode, Dr. Perkes:

- Shares how his own injury (herniated L5/S1 intervertebral disc) sparked his interest in ergonomics

- Discusses the ergonomic risks faced by anesthesia providers in their daily work and the factors that keep people from getting help when their symptoms first develop

- Emphazised the importance of working with a specialist (physical therapist, occupational therapist or ergonomist) to analyze our postures in our workflow

- Outlines practical steps that practitioners can take to set up their environment ergonomically and also advocate for ergonomic equipment

- Shared his thoughts on how good ergonomics can be incorporated into residency training and practicing providers 

Follow Surgical Ergonomics on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube 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 podcast

If you found this episode valuable, please share it with a colleague or your perioperative team to help bring greater awareness to the role of ergonomics in career longevity. If you're enjoying the podcast, I'd be grateful if you left a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your reviews help others discover the show and support our mission of improving the health and longevity of surgeons and proceduralists worldwide.

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:

Ms. Jeannette Wagner is a Surgical Technologist and is  Team Lead in the operating rooms at University of Iowa Health Care, Stead Family Children’s Hospital. She oversees multiple services along with scrubbing a large variety of surgeries. Her true passion is scrubbing pediatric cardiac and takes pride in being a part of the surgical team. An important part of her role as Team Lead is education for staff and training Surgical Technologists, as well as nurses to the scrub role. She is a dedicated and motivated professional with a passion for lifelong learning and personal growth.  She is a member of the Scheduling Committee in her department and in the past was a member and chair of the UPC council for SFCH surgical department.  Her personal interests include spending time with her family and 3 granddaughters, being out in nature and always willing to take on new challenges and expand her skills. 

 In this episode Ms. Wagner:

- Shares the MSK issues she has faced over her almost 30-year career as a scrub technologist, including needing surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome and a shoulder injury

- Emphasized that there is a lack of education around ergonomics in the training of scrub technologists

-Discusses data that shows OR nurses have high rates of MSK injuries when compared to nurses working in other hospital environments and that back injuries are the most common MSK issue

-  Describes some of the barriers to implementing ergonomic best practices among OR scrub staff

- Provides tips on  handling the power differential in the OR when it comes to utilizing ergonomic aids

- Emphasizes how communication between surgeons and techs can ease access to the field and improve ergonomics for everyone

Follow Surgical Ergonomics on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube 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 podcast

If you found this episode valuable, please share it with a colleague or your perioperative team to help bring greater awareness to the role of ergonomics in career longevity. If you're enjoying the podcast, I'd be grateful if you left a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your reviews help others discover the show and support our mission of improving the health and longevity of surgeons and proceduralists worldwide.

Dr. Jackie Cha is the Patricia Flatley Brennan Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Her research focuses on measuring physical human-robot interactions, particularly in healthcare environments, to improve worker performance, safety, and system efficiency. Her team investigates applications of robotics – both surgical robotic systems and wearables – in clinical environments and the changes of physical and cognitive interactions between human teams and robots. Prior to joining UW-Madison, she served as an assistant professor at Clemson University. Her research has been funded by several sponsors such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) (including the NSF CAREER award), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

In this episode Dr. Cha:

- Explains what exoskeletons are and the difference between active and passive exoskeletions

- Shares how exoskeletons have been used to reduce strain in industrial sectors (as PPE)

 - Describes why adapting exoskeletons to the OR is especially challenging i.e. due to the large physical and cognitive load intrinsic to OR work

- Shares the work she and others have done evaluating exoskeletons for the OR both in the simulation environment and in actual OR rooms

- Discusses the pros and cons of currently available exoskeletons in terms of adapting them to surgical work

 The Society of Surgical Ergonomics webinar on exoskeletons can be found here:https://www.societyofsurgicalergonomics.org/copy-of-video-library

The recent study with qualitative and objective data with use of a neck/back exoskeleton can be found here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40201977/

Dr. Jackie Cha can be reached via Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackiecha/

Follow Surgical Ergonomics on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube 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 podcast

If you found this episode valuable, please share it with a colleague or your perioperative team to help bring greater awareness to the role of ergonomics in career longevity. If you're enjoying the podcast, I'd be grateful if you left a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your reviews help others discover the show and support our mission of improving the health and longevity of surgeons and proceduralists worldwide.

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. Raewyn Campbell is an Associate Progessor and a rhinologist and skull base surgeon in Sydney, Australia. She is also a former physical therapist with a post-graduate diploma in exercise and sport science. She completed 3 international fellowships in Rhinology and Skull Base surgery in Auckland, NewZealand and Philadelphia and Columbus, USA. She holds leadership positions in multiple societies and is the the ENT research lead for the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Institute of Academic Surgery and the ENT Associate Member Representative for the Australian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA). She is currently pursuing a PhD in ergonomics at The University of Sydney.

In this episode, Dr. Campbell:

- Discusses her journey from working as a physical therapist to then pursuing a career as an surgical subspecialist and now pursuing her PhD in Ergonomics

- Describes the research she has done looking at MSK injuries among  otolaryngologists, with high rates of injuries among rhinologists and skull base surgeons, which impact not only their work but also their lives outside the OR

- Shares the common risk factors for MSK injury for her subspecialty including glove size, standing, case load, amount of exercise, time spent in clinic, female sex and BMI of the surgeon. Many of these are modifiable and are common to other specialties as well

- Emphasizes strategies to incorporate ergonomics into OR practice such as keeping the patient as close to oneself as possible and tilting the bed as necessary, alternating foot use for the foot pedal, using anti-fatigue mats, wearing sport shoes, paying attention to the direction of the tubing, having the scrub assistant opposite to the surgeon and including microbreaks (for both physical and cognitive ergonomics)

- Shares her strategies for incorporating ergonomics principles into clinic work

- Discusses the importance of incorporating physical activity (stretching ans strengthening) inside and outside the OR

- Describes new technologies on the horizon for surgeons working on the microscope, such as exoscopes and robotic surgery

Follow Surgical Ergonomics on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube 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 podcast

If you found this episode valuable, please share it with a colleague or your perioperative team to help bring greater awareness to the role of ergonomics in career longevity. If you're enjoying the podcast, I'd be grateful if you left a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your reviews help others discover the show and support our mission of improving the health and longevity of surgeons and proceduralists worldwide.