The College of Public Health and Health Informatics organized a scientific lecture titled "Ergonomics" on Monday 6^th Safar 1438H (5^th December 2016). The lecture was given by Dr. Adel Abo-Seif Abdulmaqsood, Professor and Supervisor at the Department of Health Information Management (HIM), College of Public Health and Health Informatics, Umm Al-Qura University (UQU). In addition, the lecture was attended by Dr. Waheeb bin Dakheel-Allah Muhammad al-Harbi, Dean of the College, Dr. Hamed Abdulaziz Gholam, the Vice-Dean, Dr. Fadil  bin Muhammad Banjar, Vice-Dean for Educational Affairs, a number of departments' supervisors, as well as many members of the College's staff.

Dr. Abo-Seif demonstrated a number of Ergonomics-related aspects. First, he defined Ergonomics as the study of the ways through which people used devices and equipment at work in order to enhance comfort, safety and productivity. In other words, it was the science of adaptation by people to their tasks and businesses. Second, Dr. Abo-Seif added that the benefits of Ergonomics included decreasing workers' injuries, diseases and compensation paid due to their work, increasing effectiveness, reducing absence from work, enhancing physical welfare, as well as raising the spirits of workers. Third, he listed the three main aspects of Ergonomics: Anatomical, Functional, and Psychological Ergonomics.

Afterwards, Prof. Abo-Seif explained the concept of Cumulative Trauma Disorders (CDT), which resulted from the accumulation of pressures over time. He added that CTD took place even in non-vocational activities such as tennis, golf, gardening, needlework, etc. Moreover, he mentioned some of the factors that affected CTD such as contact stress, overheat, over cold, stress and psycho-social issues. He also mentioned that the examples of CDT involved repetitive stress harm, inflammation, low back pain, and carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS).

In this context, Prof. Abo-Seif clarified that the factors which led to CTD included body positions, required strength to fulfill work, and task repetition. Every factor required necessary treatments in order to reduce its negative effects. Such treatments included the improvement of body positions during task performance in a way that guaranteed semi-natural positions, avoidance of wrong positions especially in case of stress, reduction of the required strength to fulfill tasks, and diversification of tasks. The treatments also involved breaks during work, and well-designed workstation and tools to ensure workers' safety, comfort and right body positions.  Besides, Prof. Abo-Seif pointed out to the significance of following proper instructions of office work regarding suitability of chairs, brightness and contrast of lighting, noise and heat.  

At the end of the lecture, there was a discussion between the lecturer and the attendees about some of the Ergonomics aspects. For example, the necessity of work environment improvement was asserted, especially with regards to miners and the like; they should be protected from traditional and new modern-technology-related risks, in order to reduce injuries and mortality. Moreover, the effect of specifying one repetitive task for factory workers for long periods was discussed.  In addition, the discussion included the initiatives taken to design workstations so that workers could work in the standing position rather than the sitting one, which benefitted health and productivity. Frequent pauses and/or short breaks during work hours and the significance of necessary utilities at work for the breaks to be away from workstations were also considered in the discussion.