Japara has announced it will be rolling out new wearable technology to its staff to help reduce workplace injuries.
DorsaVi’s “myVisafe” sensors are stuck to a person’s back or shoulders to measure a worker’s movements and identify potential exposure to injuries through repetitive movements involved in manual handling.
The data is fed back to a worker’s phone or tablet app to suggest improvements to daily practices.
“The sensors allow for the company to monitor staff on a more regular basis and do spot checks to make personal training more effective,” marketing officer Megan Connell said.
“Data collected is more comprehensive than just observational analysis because we can get the exact angles or the combination of back and shoulder strain in real time so health and safety officers don’t need to be occupational therapists as well.”
“The system has all the smarts to analyse how someone moves.”
The adoption of myViSafe follows an initial assessments conducted earlier in the year that helped to identify potential exposure to injuries through repetitive movements.
With guidance from the objective data these assessments provided, Japara have built a road map of interventions which include administrative and minor equipment changes.
The introduction of myViSafe is one of these interventions. The self-managed solution allows Japara to show employees their own movements on the job.
Japara intend to use this as an assessment and training tool, where employees will be alerted when they are undergoing activities outside their safe zone, and they can then be shown a safer way to do the task.
The product will be used across all of Japara’s residential aged care homes and five retirement complexes and will be used on an ongoing basis to assess hundreds of employees based on their job duties and the level of manual handling risk.
The sensor technology also has applications in clinical therapy and elite sports and has been used with the LA Lakers in the NBA and the New England Patriots in the NFL.
DorsaVi is seeking to expand in its priority markets: the UK, UK and Australia and is focusing on major workforce employers, clinicians and elite sports clubs.
