Accidents are a part of life, but when we carefully analyze the data on unintended incidents and injuries, we often find that many of them could have been avoided through greater care and harm reduction strategies. Unfortunately, because many companies and individuals view each injury in a bubble, they miss the significance of certain occurrences and can’t effectively reform their behaviors. Only the big picture view can help “ that’s where big data comes in.
When we use big data to analyze workplace injuries and individual accidents, we move from an individualized view of personal injury to a systemic one “ and that’s how we can reduce injuries. But what does this look like in practice? By turning to risk management ecosystems, we can see what the future of safety looks like.
Analyzing Workplace Safety
Workplace safety is a significant national concern “ it’s why organizations like OSHA exist “ but just because there’s already oversight in the workplace doesn’t mean companies are maximizing their injury prevention strategies. Rather, many do the minimum required by OSHA and leave the rest to chance.
Some workplaces, however, are taking safety seriously by instituting company-wide injury analytics. These systems let all branches of a business, no matter their location, see what accidents have occurred across the company and prevent similar events at their worksite.
For businesses, this kind of work is especially vital if we consider the fact that workplace accidents can lead to personal injury lawsuits. Developing injury prevention strategies, then, protects both individuals and the company as a whole.
Individual Injury in the Emergency Room
Another place where data visualization and injury tracking technology could be beneficial is in the emergency room. While some emergency room visits are obviously necessary “ acute appendicitis, a broken arm “ data visualization in some UK hospitals has revealed injury patterns that could be addressed on a community level.
The studies in the UK, for example, showed that people living in high poverty areas were more likely to suffer accidental falls and injuries in the home leading to ER visits, while sports injuries primarily affected those in higher income areas. With this knowledge, health teams can create targeted community health programs to reduce the likelihood of these injuries and the influx of ER patients.
Data Visualization and the IoT
Ultimately, big data systems that offer easy to use visualization technologies and implementation of IoT in the workplace are two of the most powerful tools we have for injury prevention. One construction company that introduced IoT tech meant to reduce back injury, for example, saw a 17 percent increase in productivity linked to a 70 percent reduction in high-risk motions.
Similarly, United Airlines initiated a multipronged data visualization project in 2013 that aimed to both reduce aircraft damage and flight delays and reduce injuries to baggage handlers and other employees.
Because of this program, United has had a 23 percent decrease in employee injuries since 2014, with particular improvement seen in baggage handlers and ramp workers who have experienced a 40 percent injury reduction. Simply put, once the company could see where injuries occurred, they were able to make changes to reduce them.
Though we often talk of accidents as inevitable “ they weren’t intended, how could we have prevented them? “ it often takes only simple changes to reduce such harms. From the home to the workplace, awareness projects can reduce injuries but we need data to support such programs first.
