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February 23, 2016

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Wearable technology measures human movement

Work-related injury and illnesses have a major impact on the UK economy. It is estimated that 8.3 million days lost are due to musculoskeletal disorders (MSD), which make up 42% of all work-related illnesses. MSD can become chronic conditions, affecting long term health and quality of life for an individual, with significant cost implications for companies and insurers.

ViSafe, dorsaVi’s innovative wireless sensor technology tracks and measures how people move in real time, providing companies with real-time, easy-to-interpret data which removes the guesswork and can assist in developing improved workplace safety practices.

Now, some of the companies using the technology, talk about the difference it has made to them.

Transport for London (TfL)

In a recent win, dorsaVi was awarded with the Design Innovation Award at the UK Rail Industry Awards in recognition of its ViSafe workplace assessment project with TfL, the operator of the London Underground rail network.

TfL partnered dorsaVi in June 2015 in a workplace assessment program using ViSafe to collect objective data about the manual handling requirements of the current trucks, which then was used to inform a cost/benefit analysis of purchasing new equipment to reduce the risk of worker injury in the design of the new trucks.

Zoe Whyatt from dorsaVi Europe said: “The UK Rail Industry Awards celebrate excellence and innovation across the industry, and we are honoured to have been recognised for our ViSafe project with Transport for London. In this project ViSafe data has helped Transport for London to actually design out risk in the new Emergency Repair Vehicles.  By investing now, before the ERVs are designed shows a real commitment to implementing strategies that will have a long term positive impact on the number, nature and severity of injuries as a result of this manual handing work.’’

“It’s great to see the transport sector embracing innovative technologies to reduce risk and improve productivity. We believe ViSafe represents the next wave of wearable technology that will deliver essential data to influence the way we work and ultimately reduce mounting workplace injury and occupational health and safety costs globally,” she concluded.

Toyota

Earlier this month dorsaVi partnered with transport industry leaders Jaguar Land Rover and Toyota in the UK as part of their ongoing commitment to improving workplace safety among large manual handling workforces through ViSafe assessments.

As the automotive industry globally employs nine million people producing 60 million cars per year, the auto manufacturers are seeking dorsaVi’s help to assess injury risk, validate new techniques to decrease the potential for injury and improve productivity.

Mr Stuart Bassford – Senior Specialist, Toyota Motor Europe said: “At Toyota Motor Europe, we use the standard Toyota philosophy of always looking for a better way as part of continuous improvement. We do this in all business situations including the health and wellbeing of our members.”

“This has always been, and always will be, a top priority for us. We are hopeful the trial with dorsaVi will help us continue to develop our evaluation process and enhance our members working experience.”

 Vinci Construction

DorsaVi has produced a White Paper Comparative Study looking into the impact of workplace back injuries and the use of their ViSafe technology by construction business, VINCI Construction UK.

The program objectively assessed high risk tasks with hard data and compared two systems currently used by the company. The results spoke for itself and provided the hard evidence that VINCI Construction UK needed to adopt the more effective system over the other, helping the business verify new methods of working that are better, safer and more efficient.

Andrew Ronchi, CEO of dorsaVi, says: ‘Most organisations know the importance of effective OH&S practices, yet many struggle to prove the efficacy of one system over another. That’s where ViSafe can help, measuring human movement in a way that provides companies with real-time, easy-to-interpret data, removing all of the guesswork.’

‘In the case of VINCI Construction UK, ViSafe allowed an objective comparison between two systems and showed the obvious benefit of one over another. This kind of data-driven decision making should be at the core of all organisations looking to improve their workers’ health and the health of their business overall.’

Heathrow

In January 2016 Heathrow engaged dorsaVi to conduct a study among their manual handling workforce and used the data from ViSafe to improve technique among baggage handlers, reassess current manual handling aids and ultimately reduce the risk of workplace injury.

Amanda Warner, Project Manager Development at Heathrow, says “I’m a big advocate of dorsaVi and truly believe in its capability to make a positive difference in the aviation industry and manual handling industry more broadly. The type of study we undertook was very simple and cost-effective and could be applied to any manual labour activity, reducing risk and increasing productivity in the workforce, and boosting the bottom line for everyone overall.”

Find out more at: http://eu.dorsavi.com/visafe/

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