The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them.
—Sir William Bragg
It is clear that prevention is the key to avoiding WRMSD in surgeons. Incorporating surgical ergonomics awareness and practices via curricula in residency is one way to address this early in a surgeon’s career. But what about the practicing surgeon who may already have chronic pain or other symptoms of WRMSD, or have had surgery for their issues?
Ergonomics training should be provided to practicing surgeons as well, and ideally, continue throughout the span of their career. Although general ergonomics training is beneficial, the needs of individual surgeons and the injuries they develop are unique.
Therefore, ergonomics training should be personalized. This is where coaching comes in.
The International Coaching Federation defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.” Although coaching has been an integral mechanism for improved performance in sports, music and business for many years, it is only recently gained traction in surgery. In contrast to traditional surgical professional development, which involves didactics and short courses, coaching incorporates a partnership between a trained coach and a surgeon with self-identified goals that are pursued through collaborative analysis, reflection and constructive feedback.
Dr. Lal is a trained surgical coach (via The Academy for Surgical Coaching ®) and has partnered with Dr. Linda Miller, a certified ergonomist and occupational therapist to improve your ergonomics both inside and outside the operating room via a personalized peer coaching approach. Their combined expertise and holistic approach can help you improve not only your posture and risk of WRMSD, but also enhance well-being, productivity and career longevity.
Most institutions do not have large human factors labs. Rather, what we often see is that there are 1-2 ergonomists for the entire organization and therefore, limited capacity to directly observe surgeons in the OR and provide feedback. The pandemic has further complicated direct OR observations.
Video-based surgical coaching has been shown to be a very useful modality to improve intra-operative technique and judgement. When in-person coaching is not feasible, Drs. Lal and Miller use video-based coaching to allow you to access their surgical ergonomics expertise, regardless of where you practice. This has the added advantage of moving the experiential learning process away from the high-stress OR environment and allows clients time to reflect on how best to implement changes in their workspaces at a pace that works for them.
Dr. Lal is available to share her expertise both in-person and virtually
Individual Coaching
We recommend a minimum of 3 sessions which will incorporate:
- Review of symptoms
- Goal setting
- Evaluation of operative and non-operative ergonomics using video
- Personalized feedback
- Goal setting and follow-up
Group Coaching
Suitable for a practice or Department/Division and will incorporate:
A lecture/webinar on the basics of surgical ergonomics and best practices for various types of procedures followed by one-on-one coaching for individual surgeons. This will include review of symptoms, goal setting, evaluation of operative and non-operative ergonomics using video, personalalized feedback, goal setting and follow-up.
Dr. Lal has shared her knowledge regarding surgical ergonomics at the following venues:
What others are saying about Dr. Lal
I was fortunate enough to have Dr. Lal conduct a webinar for the Section for Women in Otolaryngology. Her passion for and expertise on the topic of surgical ergonomics were very evident and the webinar was very well received by our group, inspiring fruitful discussion and plans for action.
Working under the surgical microscope I often find I am sitting in awkward positions sometimes for hours. That in addition to awkward positions working on a laptop computer resulted in shoulder pain that I struggled to sort out. A few simple suggestions from Dr. Lal and Ms. Miller resulted in much better ergonomics both at work and at home, and the shoulder discomfort has since resolved. Ergonomics coaching should be instituted in our training and in our daily practice to improve surgeon comfort and longevity.
As the scientific program chair for the 56th Annual Southwestern Gynecologic Assembly (SGA) Annual meeting, I was fortunate to recruit Dr. Lal as a speaker on this important topic, applicable to all surgical fields including gynecology. Her talk on surgical ergonomics was phenomenal, engaging, and Dr. Lal was effective in not only increasing awareness among OBGYNs, but provided resources to improve ergonomics in the operating room that was applicable to pelvic surgery. She was so great to work with and I found her presentation to be extremely impactful. I would highly recommend her as a speaker for all surgeons interested in surgical ergonomics, regardless of specialty.
Geeta Lal, MD is an engaging speaker who has presented at several of our surgery and oncology-related conferences/nursing classes. She displays confidence and poise during presentations. Dr. Lal works to connect with the specific audience, always treating them with respect, and encouraging participation and questions. Her presentations are always polished and delivered with sincerity and enthusiasm. Dr. Lal always stays focused on the presentation topic and is energetic and empowering in her style of delivery. I would highly recommend Dr. Lal as an effective and skilled speaker.
I have worked with Dr. Lal on several presentation projects — and I can say without question that she is one of the most engaging speakers — someone who speaks with authority but also from the heart. She brings depth of knowledge to her audience, as well as humanity from her own lived experience. It has been both a pleasure and an inspiration to work alongside her.
I have been fortunate to listen to Dr. Geeta Lal’s thought-provoking talks on Surgical Ergonomics at the Puget Sound Chapter of Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) Symposium (in 2020) and the HFES Healthcare Symposium (in 2021). Her passion and dedication to making Surgeons’ voices heard in addressing ergonomics-related issues, and human centric-design is phenomenal.
Dr. Lal is a dynamic and engaging speaker. I remember becoming very interested in a subject—ergonomics—that I hadn’t thought much about before Dr. Lal gave a talk on it. Her knowledge of the data and ability to pull the audience in and share her passion for a subject was impressive. Since then, I’ve paid close attention to aspects of my positioning in the operating room, and I’ve noticed exact points from her presentation have improved my cases.
I am grateful to have gone through the video-based ergonomics coaching with Dr. Lal [and Dr. Miller]. Although I was skeptical going into it, Dr. Lal thoughtfully analyzed video of me in the OR and provided practical, easy-to-implement strategies to help improve my symptoms in a personalized toolbox.
As a colorectal surgeon doing long cases deep in the pelvis, I am optimistic that I will have less aches and pains in the future. Not only did she [they] help me in the OR, but after sending pictures of my workstations in the hospital, clinic and at home, she [they] helped me implement some solutions in those areas, as well.
I only wish I had this coaching early in my career before I had issues.
I found the surgical ergonomics coaching by Dr. Lal tremendously useful. Her approach is very systematic and extends from objective assessment of operative videos to evaluation of one’s non-clinical working environment.
The interventions she recommends are specific, practical and incremental, with the goal of creating not just new habits and solutions but also fostering a constant awareness of one’s own ergonomics.