Founded in 1997 by Louise O'Shea, the company specializes in developing and implementing innovative systematic risk management programs that reduce people and materialshandling hazards in the workplace.

Ms. O'Shea, president and chief executive officer, is a registered nurse with postgraduate education in community health and occupational health and safety. In 2002, she co-authored the WorkSafe Victoria Transferring People Safely document that supports the health and safety legislation in the state of Victoria. She was a peer reviewer for the New Zealand Patient Handling Guidelines published in 2003. She also works as an expert witness in legal cases in relation to manual handling. Over the last twenty years she has presented at numerous conferences on the handling of people and materials, nationally and internationally and is recognised as a leading expert in her field.

After completing her post graduate qualifications, in 1990 Louise accepted a job as an occupational health and safety nurse at a veteran's hospital in Queensland, Australia. This new job ignited an interest in occupational safety that would give way to the creation of the O’Shea No Lift System.

Louise recognized the value of employee involvement in addressing health and safety problems so she organized ‘hazard management teams’ in each department within the Hospital.

Her willingness to listen to employee ideas and in turn empowered them to find creative solutions for existing hazards. From this experience, she recognized that her non-traditional approach of usingconsultative employee groups produced better results than directing staff what to do and then trying to get them to comply.

An innovative thinker, Louise gained an enormous amount of knowledge and practical experience during her years at the veteran hospital. During the last few months there, Louise organized her first conference on hazard management drawing on her accomplishments.

The conference was so popular some attendees drove six hours to hear Louise explain how to reduce workplace hazards and implement and maintain change. The response to this first program clearly demonstrated a need for health care safety information, particularly manual handling.

Louise's success at managing hospital hazards and facilitating cultural change were the foundation for the method she developed. The O'Shea No Lift Patient Handling System was born!

Since then, the O’Shea System has been successfully implemented into more than 500 facilities world-wide.