Practitioners - Pioneer Ergonomics

Who Is The Practitioner?

Gail Hegeman started her ergonomics training at the University of London, England in 1988. After completing her Master's Degree in Occupational Therapy in 1993 at W. Michigan University, she began her career in upper extremity rehabilitation. As a Certified Hand Therapist, Gail treats patients with a wide variety of occupational injuries. Gail also completed her Certification as an Ergonomic Assessment Specialist: she optimizes management of employee injuries to facilitate expedient recovery, high morale, and return to work. She currently works at Cooley Dickinson Hospital outpatient rehabilitation department where she specializes in treatment of upper extremity repetitive strain injuries.

Gail specializes in the prevention of job-related injuries and ergonomics. She has helped many companies, large and small, develop ergonomics programs in alignment with OSHA ergonomic guidelines. She has led power point presentations on ergonomics and provided consulting to various professional groups including chambers of commerce, faculty & staff of colleges, occupational health nurses, and physical/occupational & massage therapists. Gail also frequently lectures at colleges such as Springfield College, Fitchburg State, and American International College.

Gail serves as the chairperson of the Western Mass Hand Study Group, a society of occupational therapists, physical therapists, and physicians who meet monthly for lectures, discussions and presentations on the treatment of hand injuries, and post-surgical care of different hand, wrist, elbow and shoulder disorders.

Gail served as the chair of the Ergonomics Committee at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center’s Wing Hospital campus from 2000 – 2004. She was active on both the Risk Management and Safety Committees. She currently is the Ergonomics Team Leader at Cooley Dickinson Hospital.

She has been featured in numerous news articles including “Creating a Healthy Workplace” in Business West magazine (February 2002). This article discusses Gail’s work instituting an in-house ergonomics program along the director of Occupational Health at Wing Memorial Hospital. Gail was also featured on the PBS-TV program “Doctor’s On Call” where she did the program with William Morgan, MD from U.Mass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester. The title of the program was “Hand and Wrist Injuries / Carpal Tunnel” and was aired on July 27, 2000.

Gail Hegeman is Nationally Board Certified (NBCOT) in Occupational Therapy and Licensed by the State of Massachusetts.