Tiash Rana Mukherjee, Texas A&M presented our work on assessing the use of soft low back exoskeletons for the emergency medical service sector! Our work is driven by the concerning statistics of work-related injuries within the emergency medical services sector, particularly those affecting the lower back. About 2 million EMTs are catering to 22 million patients each year. This huge number of injuries in this small population is already a matter that we need to look into because it is three times the national average across any occupation. Although current mitigation strategies include inventions such as automatic stretchers, slip bands, training, etc, these aren’t effective as the injuries are not just happening, but the number itself is extremely high! We thank the Cy-Fair Fire Department for their unwavering support and help with the study!

T. R. Mukherjee, T. X. Do Vale Gunter, E. Manchanda, O. Tyagi, R. K. Mehta and P. Pagilla, “Assessing the Effects of a Soft Passive Low-Back Exoskeleton for Emergency Medical Services,” 2024 IEEE 4th International Conference on Human-Machine Systems (ICHMS), Toronto, ON, Canada, 2024, pp. 1-4, doi: 10.1109/ICHMS59971.2024.10555734. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICHMS59971.2024.10555734.

Abstract

This study examines the effectiveness of passive soft low back exoskeletons (LBEs) in mitigating low back injuries among emergency medical technicians and paramedics (EMT-Ps). To evaluate the dynamic interaction between users (EMT-Ps) and the ergonomic intervention (LBEs), perceptions of physical and mental exertion, muscle activity of the shoulder, lower back and lower limbs and range of motion (ROM) were investigated. The study involved a controlled field study with 20 EMT-Ps performing a modified physical agility test with and without the assistance of the LBE. The physical test circuital included tasks such as cardiac pulmonary resuscitation, stretcher pull-push, stair chair carry, etc., which are commonly performed by EMT-Ps in their occupation. EMT-Ps perceived lower physical demands associated with the circuital task when using the LBE, whereas no differences were observed with perceived mental demands. Physiological results show a reduction in muscular stress in the lower-back muscles for some tasks and comparable ROM for all tasks. Collectively, the study findings indicate that the LBEs are effective in some, but not all, emergency medical service tasks while not hindering naturalistic movements and work performance.

Presentation

Link to presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zwOocsHm1ZaZg03iBQ-jZXSPxpPSIDTf/edit#slide=id.p1