SLMANEWS
November 2013 Contd. from page 04
Recent Activities... The symposium covered different areas of ergonomics, its application and possible consequences of mismatched ergonomics by related professionals from both local and international levels; Prof. David Caple covered the Ergonomics: The Broader Perspective and Dr.Kapila Jayaratne talked on Ergonomics, an evolving speciality: Applicability in the Sri Lankan contexts. Prof Karen Jacobs shared her experiences on Child health and Ergonomics. Dr.S M Arnold, Community Physician, elaborated Ergonomics as a Health & Safety measure in occupational settings and Dr.Champika Amarasinghe, Director General, NIOSH of the Ministry of Labour & Labour Relations spoke on Industrial Ergonomics. Community Physicians, Dr. Diana Samarakkody and Dr.Inoka Suraweera discussed Ergonomics and Road Safety and Health Consequences of Mismatched Ergonomics respectively. Prof John Abeysekara explained Home ergonomics while Dr.Nishan Siriwardane, Specialist in Bioinformatics, talked on Computer ergonomics. Leading academia related to the discipline; Prof Rohini Seneviratne, Dr. Fidrosi Mehta, Prof John Abeysekara, Dr. Deepthi Perera, Dr. Deepthi Samarage and Dr. Susie Perera co-chaired three sessions. A panel discussion was held with the participation of experts from different sectors to delineate the way forward in the field of ergonomics in the Sri Lankan settings. The main drawback in inculcating
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ergonomics in industrially-developing contexts is the lacunae in knowledge. The pre-congress workshop on “Inculcating Ergonomics in the Sri Lankan Setting” was the first-ever health-led symposium in the evolving discipline of ergonomics in the country. This workshop attracted many professionals from different sectors both from local and international levels to share and transfer the new knowledge on ergonomics and human factors. Local experts working in isolation on different ergonomic scenarios had the opportunity to meet and share their work/experience at this workshop. It was an eye-opener and an effective platform to move forward with feasible ergonomic strategies with multi-sector involvement.
Post-symposium activities Several post-symposium activities were conducted jointly with NSF, NIOSH and SLMA-ECE to maximally utilize the presence of key overseas resource persons.
Child ergonomics for education & health sector stakeholders Consultant Community Physicians; Dr. Ayesha Lokubalasuriya and Dr. Manjula Danansuriya, national program managers of school health & adolescent health of Family Health Bureau coordinated a Stakeholder program on child ergonomics involving Ministries of Health & Education. Prof Karen Jacobs conducted a hands-on experience workshop on ergonomics for about 55 participants. Dr. Deepthi Perera, Director (Mater-
nal & Child Health) appreciated the efforts of SLMA – ECE in uplifting the health of children in the country. Healthy schoolbag, computer ergonomics and ergonomics in classroom settings were discussed with the active participation of different categories of officials from health and education sector.
Ergonomics Knowledge Sharing Programme for Scientists At the Auditorium -National Science Foundation, a Knowledge Sharing Programme for Scientists, Telehealth & Ergonomics was done by Prof Karen Jacobs for about 70 participants. She elaborated on various aspects of ergonomics related to telehealth from industrially-developed settings. Contd. on page 08