There is no shortcut to success, hard work is the only key to achieve success and this is proved by a young girl Vibha Bhatia, a resident of Maqsudan, Jalandhar. Vibha is a scholar from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh.
She has made her family and herself proud by winning an internationally acclaimed research award in a niche field – ‘ergonomics’ (human factors). She was nominated for the award by the Indian Society of Ergonomics. She was honoured by the prestigious award in the IEA CONGRESS 2021, which was held in Vancouver, Canada. The ceremony was organized from June 14 to June 18 and was attended by prominent world leaders and pioneers of ergonomics and human factors.
The International Ergonomics Associations has awarded Bhatia the 2020 IEA/Kingfar Award for student research in ergonomics issues and human factors.
Vibha said thanks to her parents, supervisors, central coordinator, and ISE Board for their constant help and support.
Presently, Bhatia has been doing work in dental ergonomics at the Centre of Excellence – Industrial and Product Design Lab, PEC. She has been also working on a project in collaboration with the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh and Panjab University Dental College, Chandigarh. She would soon complete her doctorate.
Her dedicated efforts would not only help Indian dentists but would also assist world dentists in improving occupational health and safety for the workers.
Bhatia said, “Ergonomics is a discipline that aims at fostering a safe and healthy work environment for workers and applies almost in every occupation ranging from white-collar jobs, including IT employees and dentists, to the rugged occupations like industrial labourers, vehicle drivers, and agricultural workers.”
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She continued, “Working in an unsafe and awkward posture for longer durations is the cause of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in workers, like frequent and unbearable pain in body muscles/joints. Realizing its importance, research and application of ergonomics is given immense importance in developed countries, whereas the field is catching its publicity at a much slower pace in India as well.”
“The early onset signs of the MSDs include redness, swelling, crepitus, reduced range of motion and loss of strength; symptoms which can be felt by an individual include pain, discomfort, aching, numbness, tingling, burning, stiffness and fatigue. The symptoms usually disrupt the daily routine of the worker at the workplace as well as home. MSDs diagnoses methods include laboratory tests (erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), imaging tests (X-rays, bone scanning, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), Ultrasonography),” she added
She further said, “Adopting proactive administrative techniques at the organizational level like work practice controls, job rotations and counteractive stretch breaks becomes crucial. Adopting a physically active lifestyle and yoga stretching in your routine may prove to be simple and effective for early prevention of MSDs.”