According the preliminary timetable, the trips to Moscow to work in the
libraries should be made in March, but they were actually made in January
22-23 and February 11-14. According to the recommendations of OSI, the
trip to the USA was made to the US National Institute for Occupational Safety
and Health (Cincinnati, OH), to gain the American experience in sphere of
medical informatics in occupational health (February 24 - March 2). During
the same trip, a visit to New Orleans, LA was made to present own data, devoted
to medical informatics in occupational dermatology, at Annual Meeting of
American Contact Dermatitis Society (February 21-24).
There was a seminar in Budapest since March 4 to March 16. During this
visit to Hungary, a visit to the colleagues in Budapest Institute of Occupational
Health was made, some data on Hungarian occupational health was collected
Since April 15 to 27 a trip to Ukraine was made, Institute of Labour Hygiene was visited in Kharkiv (April 17-20), as well as Institute of Labor Medicine in Kiev (April 21-24). The two institutes are the most prominent centers of occupational health in Ukraine. The Institute in Kharkiv has a great experience in creation databases on occupational health of the workers (namely, people working with video display terminals). In Kharkiv, Dr. Oleg Mayorov, chief specialists of Ukrainian Healthcare Ministry in medical informatics was met. The Institute of :Labour Medicine in Kiev has a long-time experience of collecting information on the health changes due to ionizing radiation after Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Also the Institute of Environmental Health in Kiev was visited.
The trip to Stockholm, Sweden, was made from May 26 to June 3, to visit one of the best European centers of occupational health – Swedish National Institute for Working Life. More than 30 specialists of this Institute and Karolinska Hospital were met, the meetings gave rather a complete picture of occupational and environmental health in Sweden. The data on Swedish registry of occupational claims were collected. This trip was made instead of visit to Finnish Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (FIOSH), because the FIOSH did not confirm possibility for visit in time (the change was approved by OSI).
The second Budapest seminar was since June 3 to 13. During this time, the second visit to the Institute of Occupational Health was made, to collect more information on Hungarian registry of occupational diseases.
On videoconferences between Nizhny Novgorod Research Institute of Hygiene and Occupational Pathology and US and Swedish institutions – they were planned as substitution for trips to the US and Sweden. Now when the trips to these countries have been performed, there are no need for such videoconferences.
In October 2002 occupational health institution (Berufsgenossenschaft) in Erfurt, Germany was visited, where information on occupational health data flow in Germany was collected. One of the most interesting topic of discussion was possibility to use medical informatics in rehabilitation of patients with occupational ilnesses. The same Berufsgenossenschaft was visited again on December 9, 2002.
During Budapest IPF seminar in October some practical issues of policy paper writing were discussed.
On November19-21, a visit to Moscow was made, where The 1st Russian Congress "Occupation and Health" was held. A special session was devoted to implementation of telemedical technologies in occupational health, the issues of occupational health survelliance were discussed during other sessions. During The Congress, several meetings with leading occupational health specialists from various regions of Russia were made, which allowed omitting planned trips to Russian cities.
On December, 6 2002 a presentation devoted to implementation of information
technologies in Russian occupational health was made in Vienna, at European
Medical and Biological Engineering Conference '02.
During December 2002 - January 2003 the draft text of research paper was written. In January a visit to Moscow was made, where the work in main Moscow medical libraries was performed. The text of research paper was discussed both with Prof. B. A. Kobrinsky (national mentor) and Dr. Per Gustavsson (Swedish mentor). The american specialist in occupationan health Dr. Bruce Bernard (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health - NIOSH, Cincinnati, OH) took an active part in the paper discussion, he submitted perhaps the most substantional editorial changes.
During March 2003, the last seminar in Budapest was visited. The public
lecture on occupational health data flow in Russia and some other countries
was delivered in CEU on March 10. The English texts of research paper and
policy paper have been uploaded at www.policy.hu/matveev. An abstract for
occupational health conference in Moscow (June 2003) is prepared; the abstract
is devoted to informational health data flow in Russia and its comparison
with the USA.
The Russian text of research paper will be ready soon, to be published as
a separate brochure by Publishing House of Nizhny Novgorod State University
this April.
Currently the Russian texts of research paper and policy paper are
discussed with Nizhny Novgorod regional public health authorities. It is supposed
that by the end of 2003 the regional program of Social and Hygienic
Monitoring (SHM) will be prepared, where some suggestions formulated in research
paper and policy paper should be implemented.