As a consultant to dentists, dental hygienists, workers compensation boards, and major disability insurance corporations for Ergonomic Practice Assessments, Dr. Lance Rucker has been involved in assessments and reviews of the ergonomic practices of injured dental and dental hygiene clinicians and of the equipment and layouts of their clinical practices. He is also frequently contracted to organize, manage and assist in rehabilitation of injured dental health professionals.
Biographs
Lance M. Rucker, DDS, FACD
Dr. Rucker is Professor and Chairman of Operative Dentistry in the Department of Oral Health Sciences at the University of British Columbia. He has been Director of the Clinical Simulation Laboratory since 1983, where he has pioneered development of custom declination in surgical telescopes, and has contributed to the development of educational equipment and teaching methodologies which improve the ergonomics of dental practice.
Via ErgoLogic Enterprises Inc., a university technology spin-off company, Dr. Rucker produced one of the major alternative computer keyboards of the Twentieth Century, a keyboard which has been credited with reducing those factors most associated with keyboard-related Repetitive Strain Injuries.
He is Director of the Surgical Telescope Evaluation Program. Results of their research have been published since mid-1996.
As consultant to an international collaborative effort of several major universities and the World Health Organization, his work has extended far beyond its North American roots. Dr. Rucker has lectured and written widely on dental ergonomics since he began his work with Clinical Ergonomics in 1981. He led a joint project funded by the Workers' Compensation Board of B.C. in which dentists and dental hygienists were evaluated for the reduction in work-related risks associated with preventive ergonomic training and the use of surgical telescopes in practice.
Dr. Rucker has worked with most major disability insurance corporations for Ergonomic Practice Assessments and rehabilitation for dental professional clients, including Berkshire Life, Provident/Paul Revere, Great-West Life, Blue Cross, Sun Life, the Insurance Corporation of B.C., Mutual of New York, Unum, Canada Life, ManuLife, Imperial Life, Desjardins Financial Security.
Dr. Rucker has been involved in medical-legal reviews of the ergonomic practices of injured dental, dental hygiene, and dental assistant claimants. He is also frequently contracted to organize, manage and assist in rehabilitation of injured professionals.
Dr. Rucker has worked closely with many of the world’s experts in workplace injuries. He has conducted research and engaged in product development for general office workplace ergonomics.
Dr. Lance Rucker and Dr. Michael Belenky
He has worked with teams of specialists in clinical assessment and rehabilitation consultation for dentists, dental hygienists, and dental assistants in professional offices and government facilities across the U.S and Canada. Among his closest associates who form the Dental Clinical Ergonomics Consultants Group are Dr. Michael Belenky of the University of Maryland in Baltimore and Dr. Susanne Sunnell of the Omni Educational Group (further information and CVs for the associates is available on request from ErgonomicsDental.com)
Summary
In brief, Dr. Rucker has extensive credentials and resources for his expertise in dental clinic ergonomics which include the following:
- Holds current dental licenses in the United States of America (California) and in Canada (British Columbia).
- Has travelled to all parts of the U.S. and Canada to conduct Ergonomic Practice Assessments.
- Is a citizen of both the United States (where he was born) and Canada (since 1978).
- Writes expert medical-legal reports and has given expert testimony in courts in the U.S. and Canada.
- Has a world-wide international reputation as an invited lecturer and keynote speaker for topics related to dental ergonomics.
- Has taught (through Continuing Education courses) thousands of dentists and dental hygienists and other dental office personnel to understand and utilize the skills of optimal dental clinical ergonomics.
- Has written many scholarly articles as well as general professional journal articles about his realm of special expertise in clinical ergonomics.
- Conducts site visit evaluations of many private and institutional dental clinic practice settings.
- Performs Ergonomic Practice Assessments in the professional’s own private dental offices, often using sophisticated patient simulation equipment. When the professional being ergonomically assessed has already retired from practice in the wake of impairment, the Ergonomic Practice Assessment is sometimes performed by prior arrangement in another private office in the region, or at a regional dental school facility, or at Dr. Rucker’s own university setting (if the professional is able and willing to travel).
- Performs recommended interventions, when equipment adjustment or modification has been indicated, or when specialized ergonomic training/retraining has been indicated) in the professional’s own private dental offices, also using sophisticated patient simulation equipment.
Associates
Michael M. Belenky, DDS, MPH, FACD, FICD, FPFA
Dr. Belenky is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Promotion and Policy at the Dental School of the University of Maryland, Baltimore. He received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in biology from the Virginia Military Institute, a Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) degree from the School of Dentistry, University of Michigan, and a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from The Johns Hopkins University. He is a graduate of the US Army John F. Kennedy Center for Special Warfare and the US Army Command and General Staff College.
Dr. Belenky joined the faculty of the Dental School’s Department of Oral Health Care Delivery in 1982, following the completion of a military career in the United States Army Dental Corps, from which he retired in the grade of Colonel. During his military career of twenty-four years, he served first as an Artillery Officer, and later as a Dental Officer in an Airborne Division, and an Airborne Brigade, as Dental Surgeon and Surgeon of a Special Forces Group (“Green Berets”), as a Dental Officer in several Dental Services in the Continental United States and overseas, as Dental Surgeon of the US Army Forces Command, and as a Staff Officer in the Headquarters of the US Army Medical Research and Development Command, the Office of the Chief of the US Army Dental Corps, and in the Headquarters of the 7th Medical Command, United States Army, Europe.
At the Maryland Dental School, Dr. Belenky is a member of the Division of General Dentistry, Department of Health Promotion and Policy. He is the Dental School’s Director of International Relations/Global Outreach, a General Practice Clinic Manager, Director and Principal Lecturer in courses on the subjects of Dental Ergonomics, Dental Care Delivery, Dental Auxiliary Utilization, and Four-handed Dentistry, and a lecturer in the Year I course Perspectives in Oral Health Care. He is Chairperson of the International Relations Committee and Consultant to the Dental School’s Judicial Board. Dr. Belenky is also a Visiting Associate Professor at the Faculty of Dentistry of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He has lectured extensively and presented numerous lectures and continuing professional education courses, nationally and internationally, and has published articles in the professional literature, on the subject of Dental Ergonomics. During his tenure at the Dental School, his professional engagements have taken him to Canada, Germany, France, Switzerland, Poland, Russia, Finland, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Mexico, Belarus and Barbados. He has established collegial relations between the Dental School and dental schools in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, Canada, Peru, Mexico, Poland, India, China, and Ireland.
Dr. Belenky is a Life member of the American Dental Association, the Maryland State Dental Association, and the Baltimore City Dental Society. He is also a member of the American Dental Education Association, the Federation Dentaire Internationale, the Omicron Kappa Upsilon National Dental Honor Society, and the International Society of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. He is a Life Fellow of the American College of Dentists, a Fellow of the International College of Dentists, a Fellow of the Pierre Fauchard Academy, and a Founding Member of the Global Network for Systematic Health Care, and the Institute of Dental Ergonomics.
Susanne Sunell, RDH, EdD
Dr. Sunell has been involved in dental hygiene practice for many years. Her clinical experience includes general practice, periodontics specialty practice, and residential care. During her time as Department Head of the Dental Hygiene Program at Vancouver Community College, she was responsible for the integration of surgical ergonomics into that program in 1990. She has lectured and published widely in Canada and the United States on the subject of ergonomics in dental hygiene, and is currently active in research, consulting and dental hygiene education.
C.W. Beattie, MD, FRCSC
Dr. Beattie is an ophthalmologist certified by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and licensed to practice medicine in the province of British Columbia.
In addition to his general ophthalmology practice, he has served as the Medical Director of Diagnostic Services at the Vancouver General Hospital/University of British Columbia Eye Care Centre. He is a Clinical Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of British Columbia. His professional memberships include the BC Medical Association, the College of Physicians & Surgeons of BC (CPSBC), the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons. As Medical Director of Diagnostic Services at the Eye Care Centre he was responsible for the overall organization and direction of diagnostic laboratory services. These responsibilities included consultation services to other ophthalmologists in cases where extensive and sophisticated testing was required, such as those involving the macular dystrophies.
He participated in research related to the ophthalmological and ergonomic implications of surgical magnification systems for dentists and other microsurgeons, and has participated as part of the Surgical Telescope Evaluation Program addressing the special needs of dentists and dental hygiene professionals for more than 20 years.
He retired from active office practice at the end of 2006. He currently serves as a medical member on Review Tribunals for Canada Pension Plan Disability and Old Age Security. These panels are federally mandated under the auspices of the Office of the Commissioner for Review Tribunals in Ottawa, Canada.