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As president of Designtex for the last five years, Susan Lyons leads a team of innovators known for a rigorous and dedicated approach to research and development of textiles, wallcovering and other applied materials with reduced environmental impact. Designtex, a Steelcase company, is the leading company in the design and manufacturing of applied materials for the built environment with an evolving catalog. Because of the notion that work can happen anywhere and everywhere, Susan says people are looking at different kinds of experiences and material choices in the workplace. As president of Designtex for the last five years, Susan Lyons leads a team of innovators known for a rigorous and dedicated approach to research and development of textiles, wallcovering and other applied materials with reduced environmental impact.

Doctors – realizing that the increased incidence of neck pain was associated with people spending more hours gazing down at technology devices – dubbed the affliction “text neck” And while some doctors might debate whether text neck actually causes spinal damage, the pain people experience when spending too much time looking down at their devices is very real. In fact, shortly after the advent of the ipad in 2010, Steelcase researchers and designers began noticing people working in significantly different postures as mobile devices became more prevalent at work. The chairs people were sitting in had been designed before these new technologies became a regular part of our work day and so they didn’t support these new postures.

In 2012, the Cochrane Collaboration, an international group of medical researchers who systematically review the world’s biomedical research, analyzed 14 randomized controlled trials with over 182,000 people followed for a median of nine years that sought to evaluate the benefits of routine, general health checkups — that is, visits to the physician for general health and not prompted by any particular symptom or complaint. Studies of annual health exams dating from 1963 to 1999 show that the annual physicals did not reduce mortality overall or for specific causes of death from cancer or heart disease. He acknowledges the psychological impact of a face-to-face exam, and although the likelihood of a life-saving diagnosis occurring during an exam is slim, the possibility is there and remains a comfort to many. Still A Crucial Part of Healthcare’s Future, even in this world of technology, smartphones and health and wellness apps, the physician-patient relationship remains vital, and the physical exam is a crucial touch point.