Resident Posture Biofeedback Study

July 1, 2026 updated by: Wake Forest University Health Sciences

Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself: A Wearable Biofeedback Device to Decrease Surgical Resident's Time in a Non-upright Posture and Work-related Musculoskeletal Pain

While a majority of surgical ergonomic studies have been evaluating attending surgeons, few have evaluated surgical ergonomics within the surgical resident. Biofeedback devices can be partnered with education and geared towards surgical residents to decrease current and future musculoskeletal disorders, which may in turn lead to longer and more fulfilling careers.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This study aims to use a commercially-available posture training device for surgical residents that sends biofeedback in the form of a gentle vibration if posture has deviated from the upright (neutral) position for a long period of time. For residents performing minimally-invasive procedures with a laparoscopic approach, our overarching hypothesis is that the time spent in a non-upright position will be less after using the posture biofeedback device compared with before. The study hypothesizes that residents will report fewer complaints related to musculoskeletal pain after wearing the posture training device.

Residents completing general surgery rotations will be recruited and wear a biofeedback device for about four weeks while performing laparoscopic procedures. Posture data from the device and survey data in the form of the Cornell Musculoskeletal Discomfort Questionnaire (CMDQ) will be collected and analyzed.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

12

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • North Carolina
      • Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States, 27157
        • Wake Forest University Health Sciences

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Surgical residents with surgical experience of at least one year (Postgraduate year 2-5)
  • Completing a one-month rotation at the study sites within the general surgery department during the study period

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Clinically diagnosed inflammatory musculoskeletal disorders per self-report
  • History of orthopedic surgery in the last six months per self-report

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Other
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: Residents
This is a single arm study. All Resident participants will use the posture biofeedback device.
Device: Posture Biofeedback Device
Participants will wear a commercially available posture training device for a two-week tracking period and a two-week training period while performing laparoscopic procedures.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Time spent in upright vs non-upright position
Time Frame: week 1 to week 4]
proportion (percentage) of time (minutes) in the upright position relative to the non-upright position during laparoscopic procedures
week 1 to week 4]

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Self-reported musculoskeletal pain score
Time Frame: baseline to week 4
Complaints related to musculoskeletal pain assessed using the Cornell Musculoskeletal Discomfort Questionnaire (CMDQ) - measures self-reported musculoskeletal discomfort for all body segments. 1 = low (score 1-2) 2 = moderate (score 3-4) 3 = high (score 5-7) 4 = very high (score 8-10 - higher scores meaning more discomfort
baseline to week 4

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Wake Forest University Health Sciences

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: William Sherrill, MD, Wake Forest University Health Sciences

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

September 26, 2024

Primary Completion (Actual)

November 2, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

November 2, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 19, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 19, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

August 21, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 2, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 1, 2026

Last Verified

November 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • IRB00115419

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

Yes

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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