Cornell University Ergonomics Web

Cornell Digital Reading Room Ergonomics Checklist (CDRREC)

The Cornell Digital Reading Room Ergonomics Checklist is intended as a quick evaluation of the working environment for radiologists who work with digital medical images. The checklist can be used to document the conditions for one radiologist or several radiologists. The checklist is divided into five sections:

Each section asks questions about the physical environment (such as the height of the desk or the temperature of the room) and the users (such as the posture of the radiologist and how s/he uses the equipment). When using the checklist, please read the question carefully as well as the answer options. Each item can be answered with a checkmark in an accompanying checkbox. Some items will have “Continue to item X” depending on the answer given or clarifying questions that will follow directly below the answer. If an item marked as an “Ergonomic Issue” is checked, this indicates a problem area within the workstation. Upon completion of the checklist, please refer to the accompanying guidelines on what steps to take.

Equipment

To complete the Display Screens and Workstation sections, you will need a tape measure. For the Input device and Chair sections, you will need a goniometer. For the ambient environment section you will need a sound level meter, a light level reader and instruments to measure temperature, humidity and velocity. It is also possible that the ambient environment of the facility is electronically monitored; in that case archival readings are fine.

NOTE: It is assumed that each workstation will have a three-screen setup. If your workstation has fewer screens, you can leave extra screen answers options blank. If your workstation set up has more than three screens, you can print out an extra copy of pages 2-3 “Display Screens” to accommodate for this.

Download CDRREC (.pdf file - you will need Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader to read the file - you can download Acrobat from www.adobe.com)