From military research in extreme heat to early mornings on construction sites, Dr. Erica Tourula has spent much of her career studying how the human body responds to physically demanding work.
Now at VigiLife, she’s putting that research to work in a different way: helping frontline workers and safety teams use SafeGuard to better understand physiological strain and take action before heat-related risks become emergencies.
We sat down with Erica to talk about her journey from research to industry, what she’s learned from working alongside construction crews, and why she believes the future of worker safety starts with listening to the people doing the work.
From Research to the Field
Tell us a little about yourself and what brought you to VigiLife.
I’m originally from the Northeast, but my path eventually took me to the desert, where I worked with the military in extremely hot environments. That experience really shaped the direction of my career. From there, I became increasingly interested in heat, how the body responds to it, and how we can better protect people working in physically demanding environments.
During my Ph.D., my research focused on construction workers and occupational heat stress. We used SafeGuard through VigiLife to collect data and better understand how hot workers were getting and how that may relate to things like kidney function. That was my first real introduction to VigiLife.
I remember thinking at the time that this was a company that truly wanted to help workers. The reach of the technology stood out to me because we were able to monitor so many individuals in the field, track core temperature trends, and help ensure workers were staying within a safer range.
After I graduated, I entered a postdoc, which is additional research training, but when I learned there was an opportunity to join VigiLife full-time, I knew I wanted to pursue it. It felt like a chance to work with a great group of people who are genuinely focused on worker safety, health, and bringing meaningful science into the real world.
What excites you most about your role today?
My role covers a wide variety of things at VigiLife, but the most exciting part for me is working directly with the workers. Whether I’m providing customer support over the phone, helping a team get set up with SafeGuard, or handing someone their Garmin watch for the first time, those moments are really meaningful. I enjoy being around the people we’re helping protect, especially because so much of my research was focused on understanding the risks they face and how we can better support their health and safety.
I also love that VigiLife is rooted in science. I didn’t get a Ph.D. and then leave that part of myself behind. Instead, I get to bring my research background, my field experience, and my “science brain” into the work I do every day.
I’m excited to connect the science to the workers, listen to what people actually need, and bring that feedback back to our team so we can continue building tools that are practical, useful, and truly designed to help keep people safe.
Understanding Heat Stress
You recently co-authored research validating smartwatch-based core temperature estimation. What does that mean for worker safety in the real world?
To me, the biggest real-world impact is that it helps move physiology out of the lab and into the environments where workers are actually experiencing heat stress.
Core temperature has traditionally been difficult to monitor in the field, so validating smartwatch-based estimates is an important step toward making heat strain more visible and actionable. For worker safety, that means we may be able to identify concerning trends earlier, support better decision-making in real time, and help prevent heat-related issues before they become emergencies.
What I also appreciate is that this type of technology can give workers more ownership of their own health. It is not just about alerting a safety manager. It can also help the individual understand what is happening in their body and make more informed decisions about rest, hydration, pacing, and recovery.
Check out Erica’s research here: https://journals.physiology.org/doi/epdf/10.1152/ajpregu.00047.2026
If you could bust one myth about heat stress or worker health, what would it be?
One myth I would love to bust is the idea that if you grew up in a hot climate or have worked in the heat for years, you are somehow immune to heat illness.
Experience matters, and acclimatization can help, but it does not make someone invincible. Heat stress is still influenced by so many factors: workload, hydration, sleep, medications, illness, protective equipment, humidity, and how much recovery time someone actually gets.
I also think we need to move away from the idea that taking a break means someone is weak. Recognizing when your body needs rest is not weakness. It is awareness. A quick recovery break can help someone stay safer, feel better, and ultimately be more productive because they are not pushing their body past the point where performance starts to decline.
In my opinion, the strongest workers are often the ones who know how to listen to their body and keep themselves safe.
Beyond the Lab
What’s something people would be surprised to learn about conducting occupational research in the field?
I think people would be surprised by how much flexibility and problem-solving it takes to conduct occupational research in the field.
In a lab, you can control the environment, the schedule, the equipment, and a lot of the variables. In the field, you are working around real people doing real jobs. Sometimes that means being onsite at 3 a.m., troubleshooting technology, adjusting to changing schedules, and collecting data while workers are getting ready for their day.
That is also what makes field research so meaningful. You are not just studying physiology in a controlled setting. You are seeing how heat, workload, recovery, equipment, and human behavior all interact in the real world. It can be challenging, but it is also the kind of research that helps us understand what workers are actually experiencing and how to better support them.
What’s something your VigiLife Team or clients would be surprised to learn about you?
I’ve moved 21 times, lived in six different states, and called 10 different cities home.
It has made me adaptable and comfortable starting over in new places, meeting new people, and figuring things out as I go. Maybe that’s part of why I enjoy field work so much.
Looking Ahead
What impact do you hope your work at VigiLife will have on workers?
The impact I hope to have is simple: I want to help reduce injuries, promote worker safety, and help keep people safe on the job.
For me, even helping prevent one person from experiencing a serious heat illness would be meaningful. If something as simple as an app connected to a watch can help a worker recognize when their body is under stress, take action sooner, and stay safe, that matters. And if we can do that across many workers, or even thousands of workers, that impact would mean more to me than any research publication.
At the end of the day, this work is about people. It is about helping workers get home safely and giving them tools that support their health in the environments where they are actually working.
My hope is that wearable technology becomes less of a novelty and more of a standard tool for proactive safety, helping organizations make better decisions and helping workers stay safer in the field.
For Erica, the connection between research and real-world safety has always been personal. Whether she’s studying heat strain on a data center construction site or helping a worker use SafeGuard for the first time, the goal is the same: turning scientific understanding into something that makes a difference in people’s lives.
At VigiLife, we’re proud to have people like Erica helping bridge the gap between what we know about the human body and how we protect it at work.
Learn more about how SafeGuard helps workers and safety teams stay ahead of physiological risk.