IT tools, weapons that fight musculoskeletal diseases

“An American study shows that the cost of musculoskeletal disorders is at the same level as the cost of cancer treatment, so it is a question of quite large sums of money. I have also stumbled across figures which say that the costs annually amount to 3% of a country’s gross national product, says Linda Rose, researcher and associate professor at the School of Technology and Health at KTH.

Now however things are about to change. Linda Rose has recently received SEK 3.4 million to develop and disseminate an IT-based tool for the risk assessment of musculoskeletal injuries.

In this way the unnecessary suffering and the costs that affect both the individual and a company as well as society can be reduced considerably.
Primarily, the tool will be used for the analysis and evaluation of sorting and warehouse work as well as the manual work that occurs between workstations in industry.

“The tool will be used to assess the risks associated with different work tasks. But it will also be able to provide guidance as to how to find and implement suitable measures, such as the reduction of distances in different types of work operations,” says Linda Rose.

She adds that the tool will also be able to provide support for work adaptation and rehabilitation of individuals with musculoskeletal problems. The objective is that people will be able to get back to work again much faster.

The tool and the documentation strategies will be freely available so that they can be used by companies and organisations as they desire. Great emphasis will be placed on easily used user interfaces, and the tool will be web-based.

For more information, contact Linda Rose at 08 - 790 94 96 or linda.rose@sth.kth.se.

Peter Larsson