Jack Dennerlein

Jack Dennerlein, a professor at Northeastern University whose research has focused on musculoskeletal disorders, said introducing educational tools in workplaces is often not enough to substantially reduce injuries. Generally, he said, measures that provide mechanical lifts or reconfigure how a workplace is organized have a bigger impact. “It should be fitting the job to the […]

Construction sites are particularly dynamic workplaces, with new workers coming and going all the time, greatly increasing the number of people who come in contact with one another, said Jack Dennerlein, a professor at Northeastern University whose research includes health and safety issues in the construction industry.

While makers of wearable devices say the purpose is to help employers reduce injuries, the technology also raises privacy and workplace-surveillance concerns, says Jack Dennerlein, a professor at Northeastern University in Boston who studies ergonomics. 

Jack Dennerlein, an ergonomics researcher at Northeastern University’s Bouvé College of Health Sciences, said the study reinforced what other studies have shown: Two-handed typing is faster than one-handed typing.

“Integrating safe patient equipment and procedures into the plan of care for each patient . . . aligns the goal of caring for the patient with the prevention of worker injury,” said lead study author Dr. Jack Dennerlein of Northeastern University in Boston. “This approach can easily be transferred to other hospitals,” Dennerlein added by […]

To achieve a neutral position, I needed to not only tilt the phone as prompted by the app, but also move it high in front of my face. That illustrates the “trade-off” between improving your neck angle and potentially causing your shoulders and arms to hurt, says Jack Dennerlein, director of the occupational biomechanics and […]

“Smaller is better,” says Professor Jack Dennerlein, an expert in ergonomics and safety at Northeastern University and the Harvard school of public health in Boston. “The reach of the thumb when you’re holding something is limited.”

But while UX is one issue, larger phones are more difficult to use from an ergonomic standpoint. Northeastern University professor of physical therapy Jack Dennerlein said a larger handset “means more awkward postures of the thumb, and reduced performance when using it with a single hand. As the size gets bigger too, the devices are […]

I plan to step up this year to a screen that measures at least 4.7 inches in diagonal, from the 4-inch iPhone I use today. With smartphones, even a little increase is a big deal. We used to laugh at Gordon Gekko’s giant cellphone in “Wall Street,” but handset makers are back to supersizing phones—or […]