Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs)

Members

	Chair Dr. Steven Fischer University of Waterloo, Canada Email: steven.fischer@uwaterloo.ca
	Co-Chair (Website and Communications) Dr. Erwin Speklé, Eur.Erg. Arbo Unie, The Netherlands Email: iea.msdtc@iea.cc

Contact Steven Fischer for more information or to join this Technical Committee

Working Groups

• Science
  • David Rempel, MD, MPH (david.rempel@ucsf.edu)
• Tools and Standards
  • Enrique Alvarez-Casado, PhD (alvarez@cenea.eu)
  • Sean Gallagher, PhD, CPE (seangallagher@auburn.edu)
• ISO Standards for Ag and Construction
  • Daniela Colombini, MD, Eur.Erg. (daniela.colombini@fastwebnet.it)
• Health Inequities and MSDs
  • Susan Stock, MD, MSc (susan.stock@umontreal.ca)
• Policy issues of continuous worker monitoring
  • Carisa Harris, PhD, CPE, PT (carisaharris@berkeley.edu)
• Technical exposure measurements
  • Stephen Bao, PhD, CPE/CCPE (baos235@uw.edu)

 

Background and Objectives

The Technical Committee on Musculoskeletal Disorders (TC MSD) is a scientific and technical committee of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA). The formation of the TC MSD is endorsed by the IEA at its Annual Council Meeting. Its mission is to collect, review and share methods, “best” practices and “best experiences” for risk assessment and management of WMSDs, including aspects related to job/task design and to workplace/work tools design.

 

Organizational structure

The TC MSD is organized into working groups (WG) related to timely, relevant, important and inescapable topics. The WG’s are led by a TC member, who can then appoint other members.

 

A vision to 2023 and beyond:

The TC MSD aims to support the IEA mandate to advance ergonomics science and practice, and to expand its scope of application and contribution to society to improve the quality of life by:

“growing and sustaining an engaged & informed international community of MSD prevention practitioners and researchers”

 

1: Growing the MSD prevention community

• Increased and targeted outreach to PhD student and early career researchers (ECRs) in MSD prevention to ensure inclusion and sustainability of the MSD TC.
• Increased and targeted outreach to the MSD prevention and management practitioner communities to expand the network of the MSD TC to support knowledge translation and exchange.
• Increase the number of countries represented on the MSD TC.

 

2: Engaging and informing the MSD prevention community

• Use quarterly webinars / seminars / lunch ‘n’ learns to increase opportunities for MSD TC members to meet and to discuss MSD prevention and management. These sessions should be preferable be organized by the different co-chairs / subgroups
  • Record sessions where appropriate to grow MSD related content for use on the IEA YouTube channel.
• Revisit the concept of leveraging a LinkedIn group to build engagement with researcher and practitioner communities.
  • Leverage the group to share new research or pre-prints
  • Highlight opportunities to attend trainings regarding emerging or existing tools for MSD assessment and prevention.
  • Post videos from any recorded webinars / seminars / lunch ‘n’ learns
• Continue to leverage and expand how the website (HFE Tools, Methods and Guidelines) can be used as a repository for tools and intervention examples.

 

3: Expand the impact of MSD prevention research and practice

• Identify groups, conferences, etc. that share overlapping MSD prevention interests and seek opportunities to share content, ideas and event endorsements.
• Identify and engage in opportunities to contribute to MSD prevention practice, policy and standards

 

2020 Annual Report Musculoskeletal Disorders
Download here

For links to assessment tools and guidance documents click here