Surgeonomics

where surgeons and ergonomics intersect

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Vanessa A. Hortian, DO, MS, LAc, CHSE

SURGEONOMICS coaching sessions and ergonomics consultations provide comprehensive ergonomics education for trainees, surgeons, endoscopists, and other proceduralists. It addresses both the physical and cognitive components of ergonomics: how positioning, movement, and physical strain interact with attention, decision-making, and cognitive load to shape team dynamics, patient outcomes, career longevity, and professional fulfillment. Instruction is delivered through individual and group coaching sessions, in an area of procedural training that has historically received insufficient attention.

Services

  • Career coaching: helps proceduralists navigate the career-long impact of how they operate, from early training decisions to sustaining a career built to last.

  • Coaching in the field of surgery: individualized coaching on the physical and cognitive components of operative ergonomics and the practices that protect a surgical or procedural career.

  • Professional coaching services in the field of surgery: structured coaching and consultation on ergonomically sound technique, physical and cognitive, for surgeons, endoscopists, and other proceduralists at any stage.

  • Virtual personal coaching: one-on-one body mechanics, cognitive ergonomics, and career coaching delivered remotely, on your schedule.

  • Peer-to-peer coaching: facilitated coaching circles where trainees and proceduralists coach each other on ergonomics, self-care, and sustainable practice.

About

The SURGEONOMICS coaching approach evolved as a natural extension of over two decades of experience in integrative medicine, surgical science, body mechanics, and movement medicine: disciplines built around how the body moves, holds tension, and sustains itself over years of repeated motion, informed by training in acupuncture, osteopathic medicine, yoga, Chinese medicine, Thai massage, dance, and personal training. Dr. Hortian is a Licensed Acupuncturist and NCCAOM Diplomate of Acupuncture, a Yoga Instructor, a Thai Massage Therapist, a Certified Surgical Coach, and a Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator. Her scholarly pursuits highlight the synergy between surgical education, simulation, ergonomics, coaching, and performance enhancement. Her perspective is distinguished by the seamless integration of Eastern and Western philosophy and application, drawing on classical Chinese medicine and acupuncture alongside osteopathic medicine and Western surgical science within a single teaching approach, giving her a unique understanding of surgical culture. Surgery demands the same discipline these traditions share, yet until recently has taught almost none of it. Dr. Hortian channels this eclectic blend of expertise directly into SURGEONOMICS coaching sessions, now shared with trainees, fellow surgeons, and other proceduralists.

SURGEONOMICS Launch Session:

Ergonomics, Longevity, and the Surgeon's Career

Friday, July 24, 2026 · 7:00–8:15 PM ET · Live session

Join Dr. Vanessa A. Hortian, DO, MS, LAc for the first in an ongoing series of SURGEONOMICS‍ coaching sessions: a live body mechanics coaching demonstration and peer coaching circle built for trainees, surgeons, endoscopists, other proceduralists. See ergonomically sound technique coached in real time, practice structured peer coaching on the habits that protect a procedural career, and learn how ongoing 1:1 and group coaching work.

What to Expect

  • Welcome and framing:

    • Why ergonomics has been left out of procedural training

  • How both physical and cognitive ergonomics, shape career longevity, fulfillment, and patient outcomes.

  • Introduction to the principles of ergonomics:

    • Live body mechanics coaching demonstration, with real-time coaching on

      • Operative positioning and ergonomically sound technique.

      • Cognitive load and decision making alongside physical mechanics.

  • Peer coaching pods:

    • Small-group coaching on real ergonomic challenges and self-care habits.

  • Introduction to ongoing 1:1 and group coaching

  • Debrief and Q & A

Interested participants please email vanessa.hortian@gmail.com to register. Space is limited.