Maritime Health Research and Education-NET/MARITIME HEALTH PORTAL

Maritime Occupational Health Portal

There is a gab of current and updated scientific information about the most important work exposures at sea for prevention, training and education in maritime occupational health and safety for all actors and especially also for the seafarers medical doctors. In the study about their educational needs they requested such a "one stop portal". The Portal is intended to have 1. The relevant and easy understandable maritime OH knowledge and 2. Guidelines for how to analyse the workplaces and implement good OH conditions. The intention is to share the available new knowledge based on    health registers, literature reviews and the results on new knowledge on the 4 main strategic subjects produced MAHRE-Net activities. Part 2, the education and training is already available by the institutions like the Danish "Seahealth and Wellfare" and the Danish Fishermen’s Occupational Health Services and similar organisations in other countries  The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work also provides training and information ressources for the fishermen, but scarse for seafarers and stevedores. The intention is to link the knowledge part with the guidelines parts in a permanent updated "first stop" evidence and training ressource for each of the specific maritime type of jobs and ships to comply with the main national prevention strategies. This model is inspired from the Norwegian "Arbejdsmiljøportal" "Arbejdsmiljøportalen" underscores the need to work efficiently and correctly and by the use of: 1. continously updated factual knowledge as basis and 2. the guidelines, instructions and training we know will work. Similarly we must have a "Maritime Occupational Health Portal" to present the updated specific exposure and health indicators for the specific ship types profiles, job-function and workplace on board from the facts produced by the MAHRE-Net and other ongoing surveillance that are important to have as the basis and effect measure. MAHRE-Net will produce some of the relevant knowledge part of maritime occupational health while the other institutions will produce the guidelines and solutions which we know work effectively. In conclusion: The Portal unites: 1. the latest updated knowledge about the risk indicators for specific job-functions and workplaces on board 2. The latest and known effective solutions for the environment in the specific workplaces by links to the specific institutions that produce the instructions and 3. The most important patient issues for the medical doctors to be aware of. This collaboration will be done within the new strategy for occupational health: the "Tre-parts aftaler om Arbejdsmiljø" 22 Dec 2020 with probably similar agreements in other countries. The agreement opens up for the effective collaboration of the knowledge producing institutes and the training and education units. There is a need to continuously evaluate the content and the usability by the users and then correct the content in a way that is easy and understandable for the users. There will also be a continuously evaluation and update of the content so that it is the most recent and new knowledge presented. And not to forget the effect measure of the implemented improvement at the workplace. Dissemination of the knowledge, organize international seminars/webinars/symposia. There is a close relation to the MARITIME HEALTH PORTAL