FAQ
8 topics
The questions we get asked.
Answers to the questions safety leaders, ergonomists, procurement and IT teams ask most — about the platform, the assessment, worker privacy, the methodology, pricing, the relationship and AI.
The basics
What is Etiscope?
The workplace MSD prevention platform, from field capture through to program intelligence. Etiscope Capture and the five-sensor kit record the physical-work risk evidence in the field; Etiscope scores it with the patent-protected Consequential Risk Score and turns it into task and job insights, the task demands library, return-to-work matching, the risk universe, validation evidence and longitudinal program reporting.
What is Etiscope Capture?
The field app inside Etiscope. Used on an iPad or iPhone with five inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors worn during the real task, it lets a trained assessor record an assessment in the actual workplace, in the actual conditions, in around 10 minutes per assessment.
What does Etiscope produce?
Task and job insights, a task demands library, Functional Demand Statements, return-to-work matching, the risk universe, validation evidence, longitudinal program reporting and Etiscope AI. They all draw on the same assessment evidence, so they work together rather than as separate reports.
Does it integrate with our systems?
Etiscope is built to integrate with your safety-management environment, and we support you with integration as part of the relationship.
Who is JointAction?
The company behind Etiscope. JointAction builds, sells and supports Etiscope and MoveTime, and partners with customers on their prevention programs.
What is MoveTime?
A separate product for sedentary and desk-based workers: a desktop application with organisation and site licences. It is not part of Etiscope, has its own site and is licensed separately. Contact us for the commercial arrangements.
The assessment
How long does an assessment take?
Around 10 minutes in the field. Most of that is the worker performing the task, with little extra time needed from the assessor. That's what makes it practical to build a task demands library across every important role.
Does it have to be run by an ergonomist?
No. Etiscope is designed to be run by trained assessors drawn from your own workforce. Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) scaled the program from two assessors to twenty-six in six months, and PG&E's published evaluation records that non-ergonomists could learn and use it without ergonomics expertise.
Do the sensors get in the way of the task?
The five sensors are body-mounted on straps designed to fit over and under common PPE without restricting movement. The worker performs the task as they normally would.
Where do the assessments happen?
In the actual workplace, in the actual conditions — confined spaces, elevated work, outdoor sites including at night, behind PPE, in low light, and on mobile work, with the assessor able to stand at a safe distance. The methodology was built for the field, not the lab.
Does it need network coverage?
No. Etiscope Capture works offline and syncs to Etiscope when the device is back in coverage, so assessments at remote sites work normally.
What if cameras suit our environment better than sensors?
The methodology is pose-data-agnostic: it runs on whichever pose-data input is appropriate for the work. Sensors are today's production path because that is the configuration the methodology has been validated on, and because they work in the environments most industrial customers operate in. Vision capture is in active development for Etiscope 3.0. Assessments you capture with suitable video today will be able to run through it when it arrives — how that is packaged will be confirmed at release — so the benefit reaches your existing record as well as new work.
Worker privacy
Do workers have to be identified?
No. Assessments can be run with de-identified worker IDs, and you decide whether to use them in line with your own consent arrangements.
Is video captured?
Optionally. Etiscope Capture supports synced video for context; raw video access is permission-controlled and automatic face-blurring is available at or after assessment. Video is for evidence about the work, not identification of the worker, and the configuration follows your own consent and policy requirements.
Is this a worker-monitoring system?
No. Etiscope identifies risk in the work design, not in the worker. It assesses tasks and roles, not individuals: workers aren't surveyed or scored as people, it is not used to track an individual's compliance or behaviour, and the unit of analysis is the task.
Can workers opt out?
Yes. Participation follows your existing consent and policy arrangements, and Etiscope supports your opt-out workflow.
Where is the data stored, and can we get it out?
In a tenant-segregated cloud library, currently on Australian cloud infrastructure, with all access logged and full export to your own safety systems.
The methodology
What is the Consequential Risk Score?
A patent-protected scoring methodology that weights raw biomechanical exposure by injury severity, recovery pathway and claims-cost data — so the score reflects how consequential the exposure is, and which task will hurt someone, not just which angle crossed a threshold.
Which standards is it aligned with?
Methodology aligned with Safe Work Australia hazardous manual task guidance, ISO 31000, and ISO 11228-1, and with REBA, RULA, MAC (HSE INDG383), ART (HSE INDG438), RAPP (HSE INDG478), and HSE Upper Limb Disorders guidance (HSG60). It is built to sit alongside the methods and standards you already use. Lower-limb postures within REBA are not yet covered by the sensor configuration. The Revised NIOSH Lifting Equation is methodologically distinct and not directly comparable.
Why not just keep using a single posture method?
You can, and many teams do — methods like REBA and RULA are aligned with this one. But MSD risk is multi-factorial: it builds from how load, posture, repetition, duration and force combine and accumulate, against recovery, environment and PPE. A method that measures one axis in isolation reads one part of a problem made of many.
How much does the assessor influence the result?
Very little. The sensors measure exposure rather than estimating it by eye, and the consequence weighting comes from the methodology rather than judgement on the day, so the assessor's input is the task context they enter.
How does Etiscope compare with an ergonomist?
Etiscope agreed with individual professionals about as well as the professionals agreed with each other, and agreed more closely with the average of two professionals than with either one. This is agreement, not accuracy: observational risk assessment has no ground truth, and every agreement level in the study was modest. Even trained professionals assessing the same task often disagree, and agreement was lowest at the neck. Etiscope scored neck actions higher than the professionals did, and the professionals identified more complex (combined) actions than Etiscope. Etiscope gives your ergonomist consistent, measured exposure data; their judgement on controls is still needed.
Has it been validated, and is it peer-reviewed?
Initial pilot validity testing was conducted in the mining sector, comparing automated output against expert human assessors on the same tasks; the trial results are documented in the ACARP Final Report (2018). One hundred and fifty (150) initial in-field risk assessments, across two industries, were validity-checked by an ergonomist and a physiotherapist for posture, action and category-threshold attribution. JointAction's validation study compared Etiscope's sensor-based risk scores with 150 assessments by 25 ergonomics and human-factors professionals across 75 recorded work tasks. This is agreement, not accuracy: observational risk assessment has no ground truth, and every agreement level in the study was modest. The study's manuscript is in preparation and has not yet been peer reviewed. Patents granted in Australia and the United States cover the wearable sensor methodology.
Pricing and the licence
How is it priced?
Through an annual Etiscope licence held in your organisation's name. The Standard licence is the whole platform, with unlimited assessments and an Etiscope sensor kit, sized to the number of workers you're responsible for and quoted for your workforce. You can start with a Pilot licence — $5,000 for the first year, with two months of full access, then read-only access to your assessments for the rest of the year — and an Archive licence keeps your assessment library available when a program pauses.
Is this consulting?
No — it's a platform licence. Training, implementation and ergonomist or specialist consulting are available from JointAction, charged by the day, and through approved consultancies (Etiscope Partners), but Etiscope isn't sold as consulting hours.
The relationship
Who owns the prevention program?
You do. Etiscope provides the platform, and JointAction provides the partnership and the ecosystem; you design, govern and run the program.
What support is included?
Online documentation and online support are included in the Standard and Pilot licences, along with every software update during the term. Training and implementation are available from JointAction by the day.
Etiscope AI
What is Etiscope AI?
The AI capability inside Etiscope — natural-language reporting, decision support, sensitivity profiling, capacity calculation and exposure forecasting, grounded in your own assessment evidence.
How is our data used for AI?
Customer data used for training is anonymised and non-identifiable, and you can opt out. There is no cross-customer leakage.
Security and certification
Do you hold SOC 2, ISO 27001 or IRAP?
No. JointAction does not hold SOC 2, ISO 27001 or IRAP certification, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise. Hosting is currently on Australian cloud infrastructure, tenant segregation and access logging are in place, and a data processing agreement can be executed alongside the licence agreement.